Dubai : Dubai Shopping Festival has never been about buying more — it has always been about buying better. For its 31st edition, Dubai Shopping Festival positions itself as the ultimate tool for curating a modern Dubai lifestyle: one built through smart high-street shopping, discovery of homegrown creativity, and access to passion-driven worlds like automotive culture.
Across 38 days, DSF 2025/26 offers residents and visitors the freedom to shape their own experience — whether that means upgrading a wardrobe through major sales, uncovering emerging brands at Market Outside The Box, or taking the first step into the world of car collecting during DSF Auto Season.
This is DSF as a lifestyle editor —a platform, not a prescriber.
Smart shopping as lifestyle building
At the foundation of DSF is its most powerful tool: citywide shopping at its most rewarding. High-street and mall retail across Dubai comes together during DSF with standout sales, promotions and raffles that make considered upgrades feel attainable.
Rather than impulse spending, DSF encourages intentional shopping — refreshing essentials, investing in quality pieces, or finally making those long-postponed purchases, all while benefitting from festival-wide promotions and the chance to win life-changing prizes.
Raffles, prize draws and spend-and-win campaigns add an extra dimension to everyday shopping. A routine purchase can suddenly carry the excitement of possibility, turning the act of shopping into part of the experience rather than the end goal.
For many, this is where lifestyle curation begins: editing wardrobes, homes and routines with confidence, value and a sense of reward.
Discovering creativity and homegrown brands at MOTB
From there, DSF invites shoppers to move beyond the familiar and into discovery. Market Outside The Box returns as the festival’s creative counterpoint — a space dedicated to emerging designers, independent labels and homegrown brands.
Unlike traditional retail environments, MOTB is built around exploration. Visitors browse fashion, accessories, lifestyle and design concepts in an environment where creators are often present, stories are shared, and products feel personal rather than mass-produced.
Here, lifestyle curation becomes about identity. It’s the place to find pieces that don’t exist everywhere else, support local talent, and build a wardrobe or home aesthetic that feels individual. MOTB isn’t about volume — it’s about finding your thing.
The experience is deliberately social and immersive, blending retail with music, food and live programming, reinforcing the idea that discovering brands should feel cultural, not transactional.
SEE IT NOW: Market Outside The Box (MOTB) – Creative Discovery
- When: Final week – until 11 January 2026
- Where: Dubai Design District (d3), Waterfront
- Entry: Free
- Opening times:
- Mon–Thu: 4pm–12pm
- Fri: 4pm–12am
- Sat–Sun: 2pm–2am
- Highlights:
- Independent fashion, beauty, lifestyle and design brands
- Limited-edition retail drops and MOTB exclusives
- Street food, pop-ups and social dining
- Live DJs, music and roaming entertainment
- Creative workshops, customisation zones and immersive installations
- The Glow Bloc, a premium zone featuring established beauty and lifestyle brands
From interest to passion: stepping into automotive culture at DSF Auto Season
DSF’s lifestyle journey doesn’t stop at shopping and design. Through DSF Auto Season, the festival opens the door to the world of automotive culture — inviting visitors to move from casual admiration to informed interest.
Luxury, performance and collector vehicles are showcased not simply as aspirational objects, but as design pieces, engineering achievements and lifestyle symbols. For newcomers, Auto Season offers education and exposure: understanding different marques, design philosophies and the emotional appeal behind car collecting.
For enthusiasts, it’s a chance to engage more deeply — to see rare models up close, explore new technologies and immerse themselves in a community driven by passion rather than prestige alone.
In this way, Auto Season functions as an entry point. It demystifies the automotive world and positions car collecting as something that starts with curiosity, not ownership.
What’s happening in the final days of DSF Auto Season:
- Middle East Car & Bike Week
- Dates: 10–11 January 2026
- Location: Dubai Studio City
- Entry: Ticketed
- Tickets: AED 75 (one-day) | AED 100 (two-day) via Platinumlist
- Times: Event-day schedule
- Highlights:
- The region’s largest motoring festival, spanning nearly 400,000 sq. ft.
- Supercars, custom builds, motorcycles, drifting arenas and stunt zones
- Live music, lifestyle activations and community showcases
- A flagship closing-weekend moment for DSF Auto Season
- Mirdif Motor Show x DSF Auto Season
- Date: 10 January 2026
- Location: City Centre Mirdif (Rooftop)
- Entry: Free
- Highlights:
- 1,000+ vehicles including supercars, classics, custom builds, bikes and RC models
- Family-friendly format with live DJs and F&B
- Mirdif Motor Show Parade featuring 500+ bikes, one of Dubai’s largest coordinated bike convoys
- Citywide Automotive Parades & Community Convoys
- Dates: Running through 11 January 2026
- Locations: Including Nad Al Shebba Square, Coca-Cola Arena and citywide routes
- Highlights:
- Bronco & Jimny Social (11 January) as the Auto Season finale
- Free roadside viewing and arrival-point celebrations across the city
- Auto Sale x DSF Auto Season
- Dates: Until 11 January 2026
- Location: Participating dealerships across Dubai
- Entry: Free
- Highlights:
- DSF-exclusive automotive offers and upgrades
- Special finance packages and test-drive experiences
- Final chance to take advantage of Auto Season buying moments
A festival that lets you choose your own path
What makes DSF unique is that none of these experiences are linear or prescriptive. There is no single “right” way to do the festival. One visitor may spend the season upgrading essentials and entering raffles. Another may focus on discovering new designers at MOTB. Others may find themselves drawn into automotive culture for the first time.
DSF’s strength lies in this flexibility. It offers a framework — sales, discovery, passion — and allows individuals to curate their own lifestyle within it.
The modern DSF mindset
In a city defined by choice, DSF reflects how people actually live in Dubai today: mixing high-street value with individuality, global brands with local creativity, and practical decisions with aspirational interests.
By combining smart shopping, creative discovery and access to niche worlds like automotive culture, Dubai Shopping Festival 2025/26 becomes more than a seasonal event. It evolves into a moment to refine tastes, explore new interests and intentionally shape the lifestyle you want to live — all within one citywide celebration.
Strategic Partners
DSF 2025-2026 is supported by Key Sponsor Commercial Bank of Dubai, and Strategic Partners, including: Al-Futtaim Malls (Dubai Festival City Mall and Festival Plaza), Al Zarooni Group (Mercato Shopping Mall), AW Rostamani Group, DHAM (Souq Al Seef, Bluewaters, Ibn Battuta Mall, Nad Al Sheba Mall, Palm Jumeirah Mall, and The Outlet Village), Emirates airline, ENOC, e&, Majid Al Futtaim (Mall of the Emirates, City Centre Mirdif, City Centre Deira), Merex Investment (City Walk and The Beach JBR), talabat, plus more to be revealed.
