Saturday, March 6 WAKESTOCK: De La Soul perform at the beach on the last night of Wakefest, the international wakeboard and music festival being hosted in Abu Dhabi for the first time. 7.30pm, Al Salhil Beach, Corniche, Friday, March 12 PAOLO NUTINI: Scottish white soul sensation plays Dubai for the first time. 9pm, The Irish Village, Dubai, www.timeouttickets.com
March 17-20: ART DUBAI: More than 70 galleries from around the region and throughout the world showcase their art, which coincides with the fringe Al Bastakiya Art Festival March 15-21, organised by the XVA Gallery. ;
March 20 to April 7 ABU DHABI FESTIVAL: World-class names in jazz, opera, ballet, art and classical music make up the programme for this year's Abu Dhabi Festival 2010. Highlights include the first-ever Middle East performance of La Bohéme by the Puccini Opera Festival, piano recitals by Yundi Li Nobuyuki Tsujii and Leif Ove Andsnes and a concert by Wadih el Safi, aka "the voice of Lebanon", accompanied by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. The New Orleans jazz star Wynton Marsalis makes his first Middle East appearance; Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko, from the American Ballet Theatre, will stage a unique production with members of the Bolshoi Ballet; and there will also be a special version of The Sound Of Music by Salzburg Marionette Theatre. The festival opens with a gala performance by the Polish Radio Orchestra, conducted by Krzystof Penderecki, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth. To see the programme in full, visit . Tickets are available at
