Another week in Dubai doing its thing. There is a football pop-up in Alserkal that is basically a shrine to the summer game, a group show at JD Malat that says something real about who actually lives in this city, a film screening that doesn't let you leave without talking to a stranger, a birthday party at the hotel, and two reasons to make it to Jameel Arts Centre before summer properly swallows everything. Here is what is on.

Where? Warehouse 41A, Alserkal Avenue

With the summer football chaos well underway, Number 10 has taken over a warehouse in Alserkal Avenue and filled it with jerseys, boots and limited-edition drops from Nike, adidas, PUMA and New Balance.

Upstairs, New Balance Football has its own dedicated space showing the Pure Ambition Pack — and if you buy anything New Balance, you get free jersey customisation on the spot. Worth swinging by even if you are not shopping.

Where? JD Malat Gallery, Downtown Dubai

Over 300 artists submitted work. Seven were chosen. The resulting group show — Made in the UAE — is one of the more interesting things to open in Dubai this month. All seven finalists live in the UAE, but between them they bring together Egyptian, Palestinian, Pakistani, Iranian, Russian, Sudanese and Emirati perspectives. The work spans painting, sculpture and mixed media, and the themes — identity, memory, belonging, cultural exchange — land differently when you know these artists are all based here, in the same city, right now. On view until 1 July.

Where? Cinema Akil

Cinema Akil has this format called Talk to Strangers — part screening, part social experiment. You show up, you watch a film, and then instead of quietly filing out, you stay. Turn to whoever is sitting next to you and actually talk. No agenda, no script, no awkward icebreakers. Just a room full of people who have just watched the same thing and have something to say about it.

On June 18, the film is Do You Love Me by Lana Daher — it has been selling out every single time it plays, so that part speaks for itself.

Where? Gulf Inn Hotel Al Nasr

Moist Paper Party turns four, and they are celebrating the only way they know how — with a proper party at Gulf Inn Hotel Al Nasr.

Cyrill Reaidy and Kirill Zhan will be on the decks.

Where? Jameel Arts Centre

Art Jameel's Summer Cinema is back for its second edition, and the lineup is genuinely worth planning around. Five films across alternate Saturdays from June 20 to August 15, curated by Hind Mezaina of The Culturist Film Club. Each screening kicks off with a short intro and ends with an open conversation — the kind of post-film discussion that actually goes somewhere. Free to attend, but registration is required. Screenings run 7:30–9:30 PM.

The series opened June 20 with a speculative fiction set in 2093. Coming up: a film about scientist John Lilly and dolphin communication (narrated by Chloë Sevigny), a desktop documentary on extremist propaganda and digital memory, Lana Daher's Do You Love Me on August 1, and the series closes August 15 with Youssef Chahine's The Blazing Sun (1954) — marking 100 years since his birth.

You have had a full week. The city can wait.