Dubai, United Arab Emirates - The entire Palm Jumeirah island and its flagship resort AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm were lit up in a spectacular fireworks display tonight, marking the official launch of the iconic landmark and its flagship resort. Music legend, Kylie Minogue, made her debut Middle East performance, alongside Middle-Eastern pop sensation, Nawal and Bollywood star, Priyanka Chopra, at the exclusive event for over 2000 guests from across the globe including: Charlize Theron, Lindsay Lohan, Mary-Kate Olsen, Petra Nemcova, Agyness Deyn, Dame Shirley Bassey, Rani Mukherjee, John Abraham, Mischa Barton, Robert DeNiro, Janet Jackson, Preity Zinta, Gosha Kutsenko, The Duchess of York, Michael Jordan, Boris Becker, Bipasha Basu, the Dubai Royal Family and Lily Allen. The highly-anticipated party was hosted by international hotelier, Sol Kerzner, Chairman of Kerzner International and H.E Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman of Nakheel, the developers and operators of AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm, to introduce Palm Jumeirah and the AtlantisAtlantis brand to the world.

The fireworks display, designed and created by international pyrotechnics expert, Grucci, stretched across the full 520 kilometres of Palm Jumeirah, lighting up the entire island and AtlantisAtlantis resort, creating a display visible from space. Custom-made shells had been shipped in from across the globe, creating a light spectacle, set off from over 716 firing locations around the island including 400 balconies at the resort.

The display followed an unprecedented high definition video illumination sequence introduced by Bollywood star, Priyanka Chopra, who rose from the stage as The Goddess of AtlantisAtlantis.

Designed by Marie-Jeanne Gauthé creative director for Jean Michel Jarre in Paris, the visual display used the 200 metre-wide Royal Towers as a canvas to visualise the story of AtlantisAtlantis, making it the most ambitious HD video projection on a standing surface.

Kylie Minogue opened her 60-minute performance with "On a Night Like This," wearing a black and gold Jean-Paul Gaultier creation, designed specifically and exclusively for the occasion and closed with 'I Should Be So Lucky.'

Guests dined on signature dishes prepared by AtlantisAtlantis' multi Michelin-starred chefs, Santi Santamaria, Michel Rostang, Giorgio Locatelli and celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa, before heading to the exclusive Royal Afterglow party with top US DJ, Samantha Ronson.

"From the beginning, I have been working with my team to create places where people can escape their everyday lives. AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm is the realization of a vision we shared with our partners at Nakheel. Tonight was a landmark event for us both and I thank my worldwide guests for coming to be a part of this occasion," said Sol Kerzner, Chairman and CEO, Kerzner International.

"This is yet another proud moment for us at Nakheel and in Dubai, where our friends from the world over join us to celebrate the launch of this extra-ordinary resort on this iconic island. This partnership between Nakheel and Kerzner is testament to our belief in Dubai having become one of the world's top destinations. World class destinations host the most spectacular developments and this is translated in what we are seeing and experiencing tonight. AtlantisAtlantis has come to the right place, and we invite all of Dubai's visitors to revel in the magnificent entertainment, service and hospitality it has to offer," said H.E. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai World and Executive Chairman of Nakheel.

Guests for the three day series of events also engaged in the resort's many activities including: Dolphin Bay, Aquaventure water park, The Lost Chambers, the AtlantisAtlantis Spa and the resort's Royal Pool. AtlantisAtlantis hosted an exclusive cocktail party in the resort's Royal Towers Lobby on Wednesday night, and closed the event with a culinary tour dinner on Friday the 21^st in the resort's restaurants followed by an after party at the resort's private nightclub, Sanctuary.

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Editors Notes:
The event, created as a launch of a landmark for the country of Dubai (Palm Jumeirah) and the official opening of its flagship resort (AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm), was designed by top celebrity party planner Colin Cowie. A 21 metre blue-finned, sea dragon covered in 3,000 purple scales snaked through the crowd as it served hors d'oeuvres and refreshments, from three buffets built in to its body. The event pageantry included 113 live actors and dancers, 200 dinner tables lit by 3,000 candles and 208 lanterns.

The resort's beach was covered in 7,200 square metres of carpet and transformed in to a glittering peacock-hued soiree with 15,000 burgundy carnations, 700 Monstera leaves and 100 cans of glitter. Traditional Middle Eastern cuisine such as baba ghanoush, tabouleh, saffron marinated chicken and lamb kofta, was served alongside signature dishes prepared by the resort's Michelin-starred chefs. Guests wore custom-designed blue and gold hand-made Taj Taj bracelets for entry.

The Illumination
The visual illumination show was broadcast in 5.1 Surround Sound and transmitted by 32 projectors, producing 660,000 lumens, the equivalent of almost 500 100-watt light bulbs.

The Fireworks
The fireworks display designed and executed by Grucci, featured some shells bursting at an altitude of 274 metres and visible from space. The pyrotechnics production utilized 79 kilometres of cable, which had been stretched across the 520 kilometres of Palm Jumeirah by a team of 75 people, over 14 days prior to the event. Half of the fireworks utilized from 716 firing locations were custom-made palm tree-shaped bursts. The largest aerial shell rose 300 meters before its flowery burst spanned more than 200 meters in length and was equivalent in size to two football fields. In true Kerzner tradition, the lost city of AtlantisAtlantis arose from the Arabian Gulf in a water and light spectacle. Illuminated water cascaded down the 103-metre-tall towers of AtlantisAtlantis before it was extinguished by a fireworks wall set off from 400 balconies, starting at the top of the hotel and quickly spreading to all 22 floors. The night's pyrotechnics, which also illuminated AtlantisAtlantis and Palm Jumeirah in red, white and green in homage to AtlantisAtlantis' newest home, the United Arab Emirates, were shipped in from China, Spain, Italy, Taiwan and the United States. More than 100,000 specially-designed pyrotechnic devices were fired in less than nine minutes during the multi-luminous pageant.

About AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm, Dubai
AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm is a 1,539 room, ocean-themed destination resort located at the centre of the crescent of the man-made Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. This US$1.5 billion joint venture project was developed with Dubai Government owned, Nakheel. Opened in September 2008, the resort utilises the 46 hectare site with 17 hectares of water park amusement, further marine and entertainment attractions and a collection of some of the most renowned world-class chefs including Nobu, Giorgio Locatelli, Santi Santamaria and Michel Rostang. AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm offers an unprecedented entertainment centre, an impressive collection of luxury boutiques and shops and extensive meeting and convention facilities. It is home to one of the largest open-air marine habitats in the world, with some 65,000 marine animals in lagoons and displays including The Lost Chambers, a maze of underwater corridors and passageways providing a journey through ancient AtlantisAtlantis. Both low and high resolution color photography of AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm is available at news.atlantisthepalm.com. If you are new user to this site, please complete the online registration to be granted access to the online newsroom.

Kerzner International Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, is a leading international developer and operator of destination resorts, casinos and luxury hotels. Kerzner's flagship brand is AtlantisAtlantis, which includes AtlantisAtlantis, Paradise Island, a 3,400-room ocean-themed destination resort in The Bahamas. Kerzner has also commenced construction of a 600-room, destination casino resort in Morocco that will open in 2009. Kerzner also manages five of the top-rated luxury resort properties in the world under the One&Only brand located in The Bahamas, Mexico, Mauritius, the Maldives and Dubai. One&Only Cape Town is scheduled to open in May in South Africa. For more information concerning Kerzner and its operating subsidiaries, visit kerzner.com.

About Nakheel
Nakheel is one of the world's largest privately held real estate developers, and a key player in realising the vision of Dubai for the 21st century: creating a world class destination for living, business and tourism.

Nakheel is developing an iconic portfolio of innovative landmark projects in Dubai, and now in key markets around the globe, across a range of sectors - residential, commercial, hotels, retail, and leisure. Nakheel's projects are conservatively estimated to be worth US$80 billion. Upon completion, Nakheel's waterfront projects will have added more than 1,000km of shoreline to Dubai's coastline.

Nakheel's Dubai portfolio includes Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali, Palm Deira, The World, Waterfront, The Universe, Nakheel Harbour & Tower, Jumeirah Islands, Jumeirah Village, Jumeirah Park, Jumeirah Heights, The Gardens, Discovery Gardens, Ibn Battuta Mall, Al Furjan, International City and Dragon Mart.

Nakheel is a key entity within Dubai World. Dubai World is one of the world's largest holding companies and supervises a portfolio of businesses and projects for the Dubai Government across five continents and more than 100 countries. Further information can be found at www.nakheelmediacentre.com.

For more information, please contact:
AtlantisAtlantis, The Palm Media Centre
Tel:+971 4 426 1605
Email: atpmedia@freud.com

Rebecca Leach
Tel:+971 55 985 3377/78
Email: Nakheel@fourcommunications.com

© Press Release 2008