The Phillips Jazz Festival is an annual event, lasting three nights, which has been taking place in Dubai for the past three years.Out of lack of anything else to do, I went with a few friends this year. I had severely underestimated how great a time could be had.

I went there on Thursday night, and, unexpectedly, on Friday night as well. I received a free ticket for Thursday night, and, to my shame, snuck in using a friend’s 3 night pass on Friday. To silence my guilt, I spent the 150 dirhams I was going to spend on the ticket buying drinks and food for my mates.

Now… the music!

There was a mixture of tunes, not only limited to jazz: we were entertained by singers, saxophones, pianos, bass guitars, harmonicas, violins, trombones.

The special finales of each night consisted of a famous singer or group. Kool & The Gang appeared at the end of the second night and put on a spectacular show of dance moves and singing, to which the crowd replied by getting off their seats and dancing themselves.

Although not as wild as the second night, Roger Hodgson (lead singer and song writer of Supertramp) regaled us with famous songs such as ‘Dreamer’, ‘It’s Raining Again’, ‘The Logical Song’ and ‘Breakfast in America’. Although, what can’t be forgotten is when he got up after a song and asked ‘if there were any Brits in the crowd’. There was an eruption of applause and whistling, and shouting (of which I was most certainly a part of). After the noise died down, he smiled and said, ‘Yep, I felt there were quite a few here’.

What I found most amusing were the laughable encores that took place. After each group’s ‘last’ song is played, the singer pretends to leave and the crowd, drugged by such a stunning performance, chants ‘More! More! More!’. The commentator then comes on and excites the crowd to an even louder level of chanting. Moments pass… and then the singer runs back on stage to miraculously perform yet another flawless, supposedly unrehearsed, song!

All in all, I had a bloody great time (and it certainly beats studying for a Maths exam). You can be sure that I’ll be there next year.