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This is what I’ll call one of the “event fails”.
Sigh.

On Thursday 26th April I got a call from Virgin Radio Dubai or the event organisers, that I had won VIP double passes to this gig at Chi Garden.

Ryan Leslie Live.

Tickets cost AED250 for these special tickets which is about NZD80. I was ecstatic.

Knowing how over the top Dubai can be with ….everything, we had thought the night would be super awesome. Ryan Leslie is Grammy-nominated American record producer, multi-instrumentalist and rapper. He has produced singles for the likes of Chris Brown and Ne-yo. So we thought, alright – this has got to be great….

Anyways doors open at 9pm and is supposed to run till 3am.

As we are obviously new to Dubai, and have not been to most places, we wanted to go early and ‘check the place out’.

Got to Chi at 9:30p.m, doorman couldn’t find my name on the guest-list, made a few phone calls la di da and in the end got us in.

The place is huge. But other than the many bar staff and event organisers, it was completely empty, other than this guy with a bright pink shirt. Haha. Okay so we thought, alright – this must be like Sixth Sense on a Friday night when it’s completely empty up till midnight. Went to grab some dinner first.

Came back out at 11pm and there was probably about 30-40 people max in the main area.

I think the worst part is that there’s a sports stadium next to it, and some game was on, so the flood lights were turned on right next to the party area which completely ruined the atmosphere. You want rave/party, you need it to be dark so people will actually go the dance floor. We were quite amused really as there were a lot of very dressed up people, girls with the shortest dresses you’ll ever fine and crazy high-heels. But everyone was just ‘standing around’ talking, even with the loud music on.

And then we found out that Ryan was not coming out till 2am.

WTF.

We stayed for another hour, just people watching. Left at midnight.

What a waste of a night, lol.
There weren’t even many people that had the green wrist-band on which means VIP, and we were one of the few, but we just couldn’t be bothered staying till 2am for Ryan Leslie, as awesome as it could have been.

I think Chi needs to check next time that the flood lights next to their venue is switched off before they organise an event like this. No one wants to dance in bright lights.

Looking forward to Sandance this Friday though 🙂