There aren’t too many dynamic spots in Dubai’s cultural landscape. It has a reputation as a rather materialistic place for people who like to show off – celebrity is praised here rather than cerebral power. One interesting feature though is the city’s Magazine shop, which recently opened in (or rather shifted location to) Media city. On the surface, it’s just another trendy coffee bar, albeit based around magazines. But they try to organise special evenings, and create a buzz, and so they have inevitably become something of a focal point for the trendy and bohemian. The shop works closely with a few cultural venues in the same vein – The Archive, The Pavilion and another one in Al Quoz whose name escapes me.

This weekend they had an outdoor fair around The Archive, which is located in Safa park. The park is one of the city’s principal green spaces – although the extension of the Creek from Business bay back to the sea is going to destroy about a third of the park. Characteristically for Dubai I haven’t heard anyone object to the plans.

The party was a pleasant event with stalls arranged in a circle selling homemade cakes, magazines, vinyl records and other bric-a-brac. It felt retro, which I think was the aim. A jazz band entertained the crowd playing all the usual cheesy favourites. Jazz seems to be the ideal soundscape for the trendy, cool and young. Taiye Selasi’s landmark blog post that did much to launch the concept of the ‘Afropolitan’ pointed to young trendy Africans happy combining Western and African urban influences and going to bars playing jazz (recently criticized here). In a different region, jazz also seems to be the right sound track for those wanting to make statements about how cool and non-conformist they are.

Still, as my friend H says, perhaps I should have just turned off my critical voice, sat down in the sun and enjoyed myself with an organic gourmet burger.