The Jumeirah Giant Cake Sale, organized by Mercato and the Jumeirah Group and held on the last day of week six of DSS 2007 Food Surprises, witnessed a huge rush of people hurrying to buy from around more than 3000 cakes that were displayed at the mall on Wednesday, July 25. The sale was flagged off at 6pm and lasted for four hours at the fountain area in Mercato.
Held annually, the event is an opportunity for cake lovers to buy their favourite cakes, pies, and tarts at reasonable prices and be part of a charitable activity. While the cakes were priced between Dhs 20 and 30, the proceeds for Wednesday's sale went to the Dubai Centre for Autism.
The event is one of the most popular events at Mercato during DSS. 60 Executive pastry chefs from all of the Jumeirah properties participated in baking approximately 3065 cakes, which represent the total number of rooms in all of Jumeirah properties worldwide. According to estimates, it took about 30.65 hours to bake all the cakes.
The cake display towered above the crowds as shoppers chose to wait and select their favourite flavours while chefs from the Jumeirah Group tended to orders. Crowds swarmed the sale area throughout the evening, highlighting the popularity of the event amongst Dubai's residents.
Food Surprises, one among the favourite Surprises this year, will be held at Reef Mall from July 26th to August 1. Featuring cooking demonstrations and workshops, every week of Food Surprises involves participation of chefs from renowned hotels in Dubai.
Launched in 1998, Dubai Summer Surprises was conceived as the foremost family entertainment event during the summer season for the whole of GCC. Targeted at visitors from outside the UAE and within the country, DSS has been a major entertainment and shopping attraction since its inception and witnessed 1,875,000 visitors in the year 2006 compared to 600,000 in 1998. The event has succeeded in positioning Dubai as the leading summer destination in the region.
The ten-week event is a celebration of different surprises that offer visitors and shoppers the perfect family entertainment opportunity and the ideal combination of shopping and adventure. Over the years DSS has hosted numerous surprises such as Food, Water, Global, Ice, Flower, Sports, Heritage, Arts, Techno, Cartoons, Colour, Sweets, Knowledge, and Back-2-School. The summer event lays special emphasis on children, who are provided all the opportunities to hone their skills while enjoying a fun-packed ten weeks of activities. DSS also has its own mascot, Modhesh, the ever smiling brand ambassador who embodies everything that the event stands for – fun, excitement, brightness and unlimited joy for children.
Dubai Summer Surprises as a venture has contributed significantly to the economy of Dubai and continues to do so by enhancing different economic sectors during a lean period of economic activity in summer. An increase in visitor expenditure from AED 850 million in 1998 to AED 2.57 billion in 2006 is a clear indication of the event's ability to drive economic growth during summer. Into its tenth year, Dubai Summer Surprises has come a long way by building on the successes of the previous editions and aims to create a benchmark for future years to provide the three most important characteristics of the event – shopping, winning, and entertainment.
