Abu Dhabi City Guide - Culture

Music and Theatre: The auditorium at the Emirates Palace, West End Corniche (tel: (02) 690 9000), a state of the art venue accommodating 1,100 guests, is an excellent concert hall and is often used for concerts and other big cultural events in Abu Dhabi. Another excellent venue is the modern building of the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation, Old Airport Road (beside Qasr al-Hosn) (tel: (02) 621 5300). With its white colonnades, cool courtyards and peaceful gardens, the foundation boasts a big library, theatre, cinema, lecture rooms, meeting rooms, an exhibition centre and coffee shop. The centre hosts numerous cultural events, including concerts with international and local artists, classic film festivals, art exhibitions and workshops throughout the year.

The creation of a major cultural district on the Saadiyat Island has begun with the groundwork for a US$400 million Guggenheim Museum. The Frank Gehry-designed museum will display a collection of modernist and contemporary art and is scheduled for completion in 2011. The cultural district will also include a performing arts centre that will house a concert hall, opera house and drama theatre and have a combined seating capacity for 6,300 people.

Cinemas: There are several multiplex cinemas in Abu Dhabi. CineStar (tel: (02) 681 8484) at the Marina Mall is the largest with nine screens. The repertoire is mainstream, with a lot of Hollywood productions being screened. The same goes for the Grand cinema in the Abu Dhabi Mall (tel: (02) 645 8988), which has six screens. The Grand cinema in the Hamdan Centre (tel: (02) 633 3000) has five screens and shows Indian and Arabic films as well as Western blockbusters.