Ahead of the opening of Expo 2020 Dubai tomorrow, these two attractions are already top of the DSCVR Expo bucket list.
It’s been years in the making and delayed due to the pandemic, but the UAE is finally ready to welcome the world to Expo 2020 Dubai. With 192 country pavilions and a diverse range of installations, artistic creations, workshops, and performances to be explored. It’s going to take multiple visits to the site to appreciate everything on offer at “the world’s greatest show.”
Expo 2020 Water Feature
One of the first things to pique our interest is the Expo 2020 Water Feature. Visitors can experience giant sheets of water cascading down 13-metre-high vertical walls into a circle of fire by day and by night defy gravity by flowing upwards.
Visitors coming from Al Wasl Plaza will enter a 40-metre-wide garden of towering palms rising above a series of curving paths that encircle the central water feature like ripples in a pond. Large planted walls rise around the feature, with three openings to a central area that takes visitors below ground level.
The 153 individual waves range from glistening sheets to bursts of water that leap from the walls as they make their dramatic descent to the plaza below. Visitors are invited to walk to the base of the falls to see how the water disappears through the stone. At night the waves reverse themselves – producing a gravity-defying spectacle as they flow up the walls.
At the feature’s centre is a circle of fire that produces enormous bursts of flames in hues of red, green and yellow. In keeping with Expo 2020’s theme of sustainability, these huge flames are made of pure hydrogen and therefore produce no carbon.
Each surge of water is released on a musical cue, creating an orchestral masterpiece performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The original score was written by the award-winning composer Ramin Djawadi, whose work includes the theme music for the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Garden In The Sky
Soaring 55-metres above the ground, Garden In The Sky is an observation tower and “flying park”, offering 360-degree views of the 4.38 square kilometre Expo 2020 Dubai site.
Located in Jubilee Park, the tower’s upper floor is planted with ten Peltophorum Inerme trees linked by stairs to the air-conditioned lower floor. Visitors to this attraction, the only one of its kind in the world, will enter the lower cabin in the basement and the upper cabin on the ground floor. The interlinked cabins rotate as they ascend and descend.
In addition to Garden in the Sky, Jubilee Park is home to dozens of food outlets, large-scale art installations, the Jubilee Stage, the Expo 2020 Water Feature, the World Souq and Rashid’s Playground – an ocean-themed adventure inspired by the imagination and underwater exploits of Expo 2020 mascot Rashid.
In addition to these Expo 2020 attractions, the site features over 200 restaurants, 60 daily shows, and 192 country pavilions! We’ll be bringing you more to explore from Expo 2020 in the coming days…
DSCVR: Expo 2020 Dubai, Dubai South, Dubai. @expo2020dubai
