New Dubai venue for Desert Rock

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Iron Maiden on stage at this year’s Desert Rock.

The organisers of Dubai's Desert Rock Festival have revealed plans to expand the scope of next year's event, consolidating its reputation as one of the biggest annual music festivals staged in the Middle East.

Speaking exclusively to S&S, Centre Stage Management (CSM) vice president Lara Teperdjian revealed the festival would relocate to the Al Sahra Desert Resort in 2008, following the closure in October of previous venue the Dubai Country Club.

The new Greenfield venue at Al Sahra, which is located adjacent to the Dubailand precinct, will dwarf the Country Club site in size, providing capacity for 50,000 punters over the course of the two-day event and parking for 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles. By comparison, this year's festival attracted 26,000 spectators.

"The venue is being built specifically for Desert Rock and we're currently negotiating a long-term deal with Al Sahra to stage future festivals on the site," Teperdjian explained, adding that the venue would also provide camping facilities for up to 4000 punters, pending Dubai government approval.

The new venue should prove an even greater lure for international acts keen to perform at the festival. While bands including Iron Maiden, Prodigy and Incubus proved major drawcards at the 2007 event, Teperdjian declined to be drawn on the international line-up confirmed for next year's festival, except to confirm that 14 bands would perform over the course of the weekend.

"We're planning to announce further details about the line-up later this month," she said. "Suffice to say, we're negotiating with a number of internationally renowned rock acts."

Teperdjian said while the core focus of the 2008 event would remain hard rock, CSM was considering expanding its scope to include more indie acts.

"This year we had Incubus and The Bravery perform and they proved very popular with punters. The second day of the festival is traditionally more ‘indie'-focused than the first," she said. "We can't please everyone but we do our best to cater to all rock tastes."

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the festival, which will be staged 7-8 March, CSM is planning a number of side attractions, including a dance tent featuring rock DJs and an acoustic stage for bands to entertain campers from 1.00am to 5.00am, in conjunction with Dubai Lime.

Dubai-based equipment rental company SLS Productions has been confirmed as the turnkey supplier of sound and lighting technology for the event, while Delta Sounds' general manager and freelance engineer Andy Jackson has been appointed head of sound.

In other news, Teperdjian confirmed CSM's new Urban Desert Festival will be staged on April 18 in Dubai, with a 90-minute headline performance by R ‘n' B singer Akon.

She added that CSM was currently assessing a number of potential locations for the event.

"We require an outdoor venue with enough space to create a festival vibe," she explained. "There are plenty of venues available in Dubai for one-off shows by touring artists, but not so many for festivals, particularly those staged outdoors."

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