We prepared thoroughly for a visit to the first Dubai “Flygtag” (aka “Day of Flight” in German): we slept well in advance, built sandwiches, grabbed pillows to enhance comfort, binoculars, and even drove to the scene early. The sight promised to be interesting.
Still: in some other place you can find several dozen quite decent adults who, with the playfulness of young children for months, design completely unimaginable homemade aircraft, which, however, are not intended for flying at all - but to defile along the runway and on the eyes of the whole people breaking on the surface of the water in a completely mediocre way.
At the entrance to the venue of the first Dubai “Flygtag” we were twice seriously surprised. An unpleasant surprise was that we were looking for parking for an hour and as a result we parked on the sidewalk, where dozens of cars were already standing in a row. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw that there are a lot of Europeans in Dubai who wear short skirts, little T-shirts and do not even drink anything except Red Bull.
During the Flygtag, we did not stop vying to praise each other for preferring the lawns and Creek Park beach to home sofas on a Friday afternoon. Everything was fun from the heart: the participants - on stage, the audience - in tight rows at the water's edge and under palm trees. It was especially pleasant to those who were in the VIP zone, where they handed out food, drinks and Red Bull without restrictions.
Teams were selected creative: not only the “airplanes”, but for the most part the representations of the teams were interesting. Some invented the "camel" ("flew away," I must say, the farthest). Others - the "plane" in the form of the island of Palm Jumeirah, causing serious suspicion about the sponsor. Representatives of one of the Abu Dhab hotels dressed in Santa Claus (one such a burly British girl in a short skirt brought the little girl to tears, asking if she saw Santa Claus). Young representatives of the UAE (there were three teams from the Emirates in total) danced reggae and scattered Jamaican berets.
It was fun.
The first Dubai-based Flygtag did not disappoint: the participants approached the matter creatively, the organizers were surprisingly professional, and the Red Bull sponsor thoroughly (Red Bull jars were everywhere, there were always a lot of them). Returning to the car, we made plans regarding how our “plane” would look like next year and who would be the pilot, because the issue of participation was finally decided. And everything would be fine and wonderful, if not for a large fine for parking in the wrong place ...
