Skip to main content

Dubai Palm opens with star-studded party

  • Story Highlights
  • The Palm Jumeirah man-made island officially opens off Dubai
  • The island of luxury shops, hotels, entertainment doubled Dubai coastline
  • Robert De Niro, Janet Jackson and the Duchess of York at opening party
  • Next Article in World »
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- A huge man-made island shaped like a date palm tree opened Thursday off the coast of Dubai with a celebrity-studded gala and a three-day party.

The island officially opens with a spectacular fireworks display.

The island officially opens with a spectacular fireworks display.

The Palm Jumeirah increased Dubai's shoreline by 100 percent after work started on it in 2001.

It features resort hotels, homes, luxury shopping and entertainment.

Though the entire island officially opened Thursday, parts of it already opened weeks ago -- including the Atlantis, The Palm, a sister to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.

The Atlantis played host to the opening celebration Thursday night.

Stars including Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Robert De Niro, Janet Jackson and the Duchess of York were in attendance.

Pop star Kylie Minogue performed at the party.

advertisement

Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra started what was billed as the world's largest-ever fireworks display, with more than 100,000 pyrotechnic devices.

When work on the island began, a team of Dutch engineers were employed to create the Palm by using a technique called rainbowing -- a vessel dredging sand from the seabed and spraying and piling it onto the desired area and into the requested shape.

  • E-mail
  • Save
  • Print