Now Sols Setting The Sky On Fire

Kerzner s latest resort launch party in Dubai is a two-day celebrity feast believed to cost 20m.




The world may be in the throes of an economic meltdown, but South Africa s Sun King Sol Kerzner is not letting austerity prevent him from blowing the Beijing Olympics out of the water with a fireworks display at his five-star development in Dubai that will be more than seven times bigger.
This has never been done before, said Jerry Inzerillo, president of Kerzner Entertainment Group International this week. During the opening and space saver storage closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, 14000 devices were fired. We will be blowing up 100000 specially designed devices off 340 platforms around (the resort) Atlantis, The Palm. That means you will be able to see the fireworks from the international space stations.
And those fireworks are but the cracker on top of what the international media from London to Sydney are calling the world s most expensive party, to be hosted on Thursday and Friday this week.
Kerzner, with his business partner, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, are spending what the Sunday Times has reliably learnt is 20-million on a two-day celebration to launch the man-made island development shaped in the form of a palm tree, The Palm Jumeirah, and Atlantis The Palm, Kerzner s new 1539-room ocean-themed resort sitting in the centre of the crescent-shaped part of the islands. The sultan is the executive chairman of Nakheel, a land reclamation company responsible for creating three islands, called The Palm Islands, which will increase Dubai s shoreline by about 520km.
The Palm Jumeirah is the smallest and first of the islands to be developed.
The Sunday Times is in possession of a guest list of high-wattage international names who will be part of the 2000 guests attending the celebrations, but has been asked to keep it under wraps.
However, it can be confirmed that guests include the world s highest paid talk-show host, a female R-B singer from America s foremost performing family, two Oscar award-winning African-American actors, a host of Bollywood and Middle Eastern stars, and royalty from several families including a member of the British royal family.
Kerzner has also acknowledged his close ties to South Africa by inviting good friends here to be part of this extraordinary occasion.
The guests are bound to be enthralled by the tableau of events, designed by celebrity party planner Colin Cowie, with signature dishes prepared by Michelin-starred chefs from the resort. They include Michel Rostang, who s been called one of Paris s most creative chefs, Italian Giorgio Locatelli of BBC Food and inflatable space shuttle Japanese celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa.
The night will see Australian pop songstress Kylie Minogue perform for the first time in the Middle East she was apparently paid 2-million for the gig followed by Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, who will rise from the stage as the goddess of Atlantis , setting in motion a sequence that will culminate in the fireworks spectacular.
Inzerillo, Kerzner s right-hand man since they were involved in Sun City 18 years ago, said this week that the launch parties were planned long before the current economic climate and reflected Kerzner s marketing approach of creating a worldwide event to generate awareness, rather than pumping millions into advertising. For the past 10 months, a core team of 50 experts was involved in the project, a number which recently mushroomed to nearly 800 staff, including 400 technicians who will be manning the fireworks spectacular.
Our brief was to create a big, unique event to demonstrate that Atlantis is the flagship, the first of more than 40 hotels to open there, he explained.
Inzerillo said it was not difficult to rope in the world s leading entertainers to be involved with the event because of Kerzner s reputation and space saver spare the high esteem in which his hotels were held among the glitterati.

Although the luxury resort hotel welcomed its first guests at the end of September Hollywood couples Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, and Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones recently stayed at the hotel Thursday marks its official opening.
The hotel, a joint venture between Kerzner Internationalthe Dubai state-owned company Istithmar World, has been enjoying a close to 90% occupancy rate.
That s a little ahead of our expectations, Kerzner said last week in Cape Town during a site visit for his One-Only development here. jacobsc sundaytimes.co.za