Key Points
- RAGE 90s recreates a 1990s Abu Dhabi shopping street inside the Cultural Foundation, with free entry
- The run ends 8 November, opening daily from 5pm until midnight
- It gives older residents a memory trip and younger visitors a view of the pre-boom capital
The latest:
A full 1990s Abu Dhabi shopping street — toy shop, photography studio, cassette store — has been rebuilt inside the Cultural Foundation for RAGE 90s, a free festival running until 8 November. The six-day event pairs nostalgic storefronts with arcade machines, themed film screenings and 40 participating food and retail brands.
Details:
- The centrepiece: The main attraction is a restaged old Abu Dhabi commercial street, built around a toy shop, a photography studio and a cassette store, with colourful signage reproducing a period when neighbourhood businesses anchored daily life in the capital.
- The taxi: A gold-and-white taxi sits among the displays, one of the vehicles that defined Abu Dhabi’s roads before the city introduced its modern fleet. The cab is the festival’s most recognisable single object for residents who lived here three decades ago.
- The cinema: Organisers have recreated the Eldorado cinema with a coloured neon sign. The original opened on Electra Street in November 1970 as Abu Dhabi’s first indoor cinema, screening English, Arabic and Indian films, and became closely associated with Bollywood and South Indian cinema.
- Eldorado’s end: The cinema closed in 2017 after decades as a popular destination, making its restaged facade one of the few parts of the festival rebuilt from a venue that no longer exists anywhere in the city.
- Arcade and games: Beyond the street set, visitors find arcade machines including a cabinet branded Atari, alongside fairground-style attractions, prize games and a lockers area. The section leans on the decade’s home and coin-operated gaming culture rather than contemporary formats.
- Food and retail: Twenty retail brands and 20 food and beverage concepts are taking part from kiosks in the Cultural Foundation’s outdoor spaces. Some contemporary businesses have adopted retro-inspired stall designs to match the venue’s period styling.
- Programming: The amphitheatre hosts themed film screenings, performances and entertainment drawn from the decade. Organisers have not published a line-up of individual titles or acts for the six nights.
- The venue’s history: The Cultural Foundation opened in 1981 on the directives of the UAE’s founder, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Alongside Qasr Al Hosn, it was the country’s first multipurpose community cultural centre, housing the first national library, a theatre and exhibition spaces.
- Reopening: The building reopened in December 2018 after extensive conservation work and still operates as a space for exhibitions, performances and community activities, placing the festival inside a site that predates the decade it recreates.
- Practical details: RAGE 90s runs until 8 November at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi, daily from 5pm to midnight. Entry is free, and organisers have not announced a ticketing or registration requirement for any individual attraction.
Background:
Abu Dhabi’s commercial landscape changed sharply over the past three decades, with neighbourhood shops and the old gold-and-white taxi fleet replaced by malls and modern transport. Much of what the festival stages no longer exists physically in the capital.
Between the lines:
The choice of venue carries its own argument. The Cultural Foundation, opened in 1981 and conserved for reopening in 2018, is itself a surviving piece of the era being staged — unlike the Eldorado, which closed in 2017, or the old taxi fleet. Preserving the building lets the city host a recreation of a period most of whose physical traces are gone.
What’s next
The festival closes on 8 November. Separately, the Nomad art and design fair is due to return to Abu Dhabi’s old airport terminal in November, another repurposing of a disused capital landmark.
