Echo and the Bunnymen
The headliners will perform at the Irish Village, while other key events are to be spread across the area's music venues including Chi@The Lodge and 360º.
As well as the musical line-up, there will also be a series of conference panels discussing the emerging music scene, at Jumeirah Emirates Towers, a five-star business hotel.
Speakers will include Bobby Talwar, director of events company Only Much Louder, that recently put on India’s first international festival, The Big Chill, in Goa.
Other delegates include Shun Mori, from Japanese publishers Fujipacific; Brian Neilsen, from Danish agents Skandinavian Bookings; and Crispin Hearn, from Primary Talent; who represents acts including Oasis, Babyshambles, The Bluetones, Ladytron and The Wombats. Conference debates will include Dubai and India: The Titans of the Middle East and Asia, which will discuss whether India’s growing young population will be the key music market of the future.
Mr Pichilingi said: “The conference side will start off smaller than the Liverpool event but we hope it will grow year on year. The idea is that Dubai, like Liverpool Sound City, will become an annual event.
“Year one is a real statement of intent. We are also taking over 40 speakers from across the globe with Liverpool big wigs such as Alan Wills from Deltasonic Records also getting involved. We’ve booked 1,000 flights and are sleeping over 5,000 hotel bed nights. Booking this lot alone has been a mammoth task, but it promises to be the world’s hottest winter music festival.”
