The annual shopping event is expected to attract more than two million visitors this time round. Last year, it drew a record 2.4 million shoppers and saw sales worth $1.12 million.

The festivities begin with a dazzling opening ceremony on the Sheikh Zayed Road and continue with cable car rides at Creek Park and a 30-minute laser show at Al Seef Street every day.

The festival calendar includes events tailored to pay tribute to the mother. There is the Ideal Arab Mother competition and the Ideal Family competition with prize money of $20,000. On March 21, Mother's Day, there will be a conference on Motherhood: From Now to Future.

The streets of Dubai will come alive by day with parades, floats and free entertainment by stilt-walkers, acrobats, clowns, jugglers, magicians, fire-eaters, falconeers, marching bands and tribal dancers. The skies will light up every night with festivities against the backdrop of laser and sound shows. The Al Zarooni fireworks displays (15 tonnes of fireworks every night!), dolphin shows, the Aqua Fantasia show and the Dubai World Cup are among other attractions.

For 2000, one of the most interesting events is the enactment of the Hercules story on ice. Disney on Ice, one of Disney's most celebrated travelling shows, will entertain visitors at the Airport Expo Dubai with two daily shows from March 9 to 28. The lavish song-and-dance show set in an ice-rink has been brought to the festival by the Dubai Municipality. Tickets for the two-hour show will be priced between 30 and 50 dirhams. ``Disney on Ice is something Dubai has not seen before,'' says engineer Hussain Nasser Lootah, assistant director general for environment and public health affairs, Dubai Municipality. ``It is a spectacular fusion of drama, dance and music. The indoor fireworks that will add to its glamour,'' he says.

The business houses of Dubai offer special sops during the carnival. Hotels rack rates drop by 40 per cent at this time. There are over 300 hotels and 130 apartment hotels in the city, with over 31,300 beds on offer. Restaurants have special price-offs and ``extras'' with meals. Airlines offer discounts and excess baggage allowance.

This year too, there will be a daily raffle offering Rolls Royce cars. A record number of 31 Rolls Royces will be given away during the month-long festival. The shopping extravaganza includes the largest selection of carpets in the world at the Carpet Oasis. Families can spend hours at a 200-stall bazaar called the Festival Souq, and at the Global Village where artifacts, trinkets, curios, handicrafts and cuisine from around the world vie for the shopper's attention.

Fadila Al Moaini, a journalist with Al Bayan daily, says at the festival's official Website that the event has added value to the conventional concept of shopping by introducing social themes. ``Many years ago, when Dubai was a trading centre, shopping was the only form of communication between countries as people went to buy things from traders who came from different parts of the world. Modern-day Dubai has cleverly converted that into a big shopping-cum-entertainment event,'' says Moaini.

``This year's central theme is highly relevant as it pays tributes to society's central figure, the mother, whose work and worth are often taken for granted,'' adds Mozah Mattar, another jouranist based in the region, in an interview on www.mydsf.com. Dubai is also the sports capital of West Asia. The clean beaches welcome sea and surf enthusiasts with water and jet skiing, sailing, cruising, diving and water aerobics. The adventurous can try dune bashing, dune driving, sand skiing or sand boarding.

All you need now is to persuade your mom to sponsor a trip to Dubai.