Dubai, UAE – Lime Green Entertainment, an entertainments company in the UAE which runs the Dubailime.com website today announced that it would be sponsoring the Dubai Original Music festival in June. Lime Green a company that until just a few weeks ago consisted of a group of musicians that want to run an original music night in Dubai seems to have come from nowhere, to be front and centre of the Dubai cultural stage in the past two months. Now they are lead sponsors for a mainstream cultural event that promises to give Dubai’s music community a lot of exposure.
The company announced that it would be sponsoring the Dubai Original Music festival an annual event that showcases the best in Dubai Original Music talent. Many of the Dubai based artists playing in the festival are already members of Dubailime.com and I have to say many of them pretty good and a couple of them are very good. Dubai is certainly developing a talent pool, there seems to be an aroma in the air that is only detected when something really special is happening. The Dubai Lime concept is pretty smart; they are providing a My Space type environment connected to real life events in the city of Dubai. They are collecting sponsorship from brands and then funding the people that are using the forum and that are unhappy in their jobs to join Dubai Lime and turn their passion for a cultural activity into their work. How popular is it?
Well, I work in Media City in Dubai, I have attended some, but not all of the Dubai Lime events, and I have also met the initial founders of the company, all be it; briefly. All that I am prepared to divulge is that I have a conversation about Dubai Lime at least three times a day and have done so for the past two weeks. Media City, a free zone area of Dubai where all of the media companies are generally located around a central business hub seems to be going Lime Looney.
What these guys are trying to do for their “Limers” Dubai Lime website users to the uneducated, is pretty special, their stance on ethical sponsorship which bans the promotion of ciggies, booze or credit cards anywhere on their site and their absolute aversion to banner advertising, normally the cash cow that pays the way on every website is both refreshing and liberating. It reminds this wizened hack of when journalism used to be about quality of the page and not it’s advertising value, for this they have my respect and encouragement.
There is not a single doubt in my mind that what they are doing is benefiting cultural development in this fast developing city. At every event I have been to they have promoted a local charity and driven home the message of positive contribution to the community. They are the first to set up a not for profit musician development forum, you only have to watch the videos under Dubai Lime on You Tube to see how their artists are improving every week. The million dollar question remains, will they succeed, or will they be blocked by a bigger and more cash heavy rival looking to steel their lunch. I think we will have to wait and see. Don’t underestimate these guys though, they certainly have a genuine passion for music and I know at least one of them is a big shot business type that has his head firmly screwed on, and from appearances at least; firmly out of his bottom.
I honestly hope they do succeed. In my book (as tatty as its covers may be now I am on the wrong side of forty) it is the people that actually take the initiative to create new forums like the DubaiLime that tend to be driven by innovation and leave the main stream media eating their dust and wondering what just happened. Add to this their popularity; with the number of cheering fans they have in the media crowd, the Dubai Lime team has an 11th, 12th and 13th man on the pitch.
Elias Abbed
Author: admin
