Riverland Rhythm Festival
A few weekends ago we spent an evening out at a place called Riverland. It is a big compilation of restaurants, stores and also has two connecting theme parks, Legoland Waterpark and Bollywood. The four different themed zones which are planted around the man-made river are the Boardwalk (set up to mimic an American beach boardwalk,) the French Village, the India Gate, and the Peninsula which was at the heart of the park.
Riverland itself did not have that much more to offer than any other typical strip mall in Dubai, except that this particular weekend was special. The annual Rhythm Festival was happening with numerous outdoor musical acts, concerts, and performances sprinkled throughout the entire park. We saw jazz bands, drummers, solo artists, Emirati dancers, and even the local favorite, Mudassar Jackson (a Michael Jackson impersonator), who was BAD. And if you love MJ as much as me, you’ll know that by BAD, I mean AWESOME!!! Ella takes after my own heart and really lit up to the music which you can see in her dance video below. Make sure to notice the other little kid dancing on her bench too.
We also had fun marching around the French Village with the New Orleans Marching Band who played those old American favorites like “When the Saints Go Marching In” prompting even the locals to march along. And there was a fun workshop on Capoeira which is a strange but pretty cool Brazilian art combining dance with fight. But the best part of the whole night was a bongo drum workshop. My little drummer girl beat that drum for 10 minutes straight with an ear-to-ear grin that never let down. She was in heaven and I was right there in heaven with her getting to watch my child take so much joy in making music. The video below is kinda lengthy (5 minutes) but for Ella’s grandparents and aunts, her videos can never be too long.
Add in an ice cream shop called Ella’s Creamery and the night couldn’t have been any better. You may be wondering about the lack of additional pics, but I was a dingbat and left my phone at home, and Ken’s phone died shortly after we arrived. Hopefully my recap and the pics/videos below are enough to bring you a little bit closer to our side of the world.
