Major cultural events scheduled to take place over the next month have been suspended following the death of Sheikh Khalifa, President of UAE. The cancellation or postponements come in line with an announcement by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, stating that there will be an official mourning period of 40 days with flags to fly at half-mast, as well as three days of closure of ministries and official entities at the federal and local levels, and the private sector.

Louvre Abu Dhabi event cancelled

An event at Louvre Abu Dhabi, which would have the auditorium transform into The Royal Opera House at Versailles for a special series of immersive shows inspired by the museum’s latest exhibition, Versailles & the World has been cancelled. Called The Royal Secret Soiree, the experience was to incorporate multidimensional theatre shows, taking place from Friday to Sunday.

Dubai Comedy Festival postponed

Dubai comedy festival that kicked off on Thursday by celebrated comedian Russell Peters and is due to run until Sunday, May 22, has cancelled it’s all shows until Monday. This includes those by Indian comic Vir Das, Filipino-American Jo Koy, Comedy Bizarre and The Laughter Factory, which will be rescheduled.

In light of the sad news of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan's passing, Dubai Comedy Festival shows will be postponed to a later date.

More details will be announced soon once we have more information on which shows that are affected, as well as the new dates.

— Dubai Comedy Fest (@dubaicomedyfest) May 13, 2022

Floyd Mayweather’s Dubai exhibition fight cancelled

Highly anticipated exhibition fight between Floyd Mayweather and Don Moore has been cancelled following the death of the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed. The exhibition fight is part of The Global Titan Fight Series that was scheduled to be held on Burj Al Arab hotel’s famous helipad in Dubai on Saturday, May 14.

A new event called Break the Block, celebrating street food and music, which was to take place on Friday and Saturday at Dubai Design District, is “postponed until further notice”. What is claimed to be Dubai’s “first street food block party” was to bring together popular UAE hip-hop and RnB artists and street food trucks for the two-day event, with a musical line-up including DJ Kaboo, the Egyptian spinner who gained international acclaim with his tracks appearing in the new anti-hero Marvel TV series, Moon Knight.

A performance by South African DJ Black Coffee, scheduled to take place at White Dubai on Friday, has also been cancelled.

Meanwhile, the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, which began on Wednesday, announced that it will go ahead as planned on Friday evening, but workshops and activities will be cancelled. Plans for the next few days of mourning are yet to be confirmed. Another major event to take place within the next week is the International Indian Film Academy Awards, which are scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 21 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, starring Bollywood performers set to fly in from India. A decision on whether or not it will go ahead has yet to be taken.