With a unique lineup this weekend, Dubai Jazz Festival 2016, featuring Santana, David Gray and Sting, was well received by a loyal audience. We noticed, however, that there’s so much more than music at the festival.

Walking about the venue on an exceptionally pleasant evening, it was hard not to notice how Dubai Jazz Festival moves beyond music with festive, vibrant and sometimes, unusual pop-up booths of visual artists putting their work up for sale.

Like visual art is used as a form of self-expression, Jazz carries in it the same unpredictability, sense of person, and emotional highs and lows. Art and Jazz – It’s a fitting and fluid companionship.

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“I think if you appreciate art in one form, then you are going to appreciate it in another,” says audience member Claire Cain.

“So if you appreciate Jazz as an art form, then you are going to appreciate art on a board, in water color, in acrylic or even on glass; there are lots of different ways,”

added Cain.

Many of the artists wait all year to display their work at the festival, since the audience find the laid-back setting ideal for appreciating artwork, while listening to Jazz, having a bite or sipping their drinks.

“We’re all artists. We’re visual artists and those musicians are audible artists. A lot of people are surprised to see so much art here, but I find people that have a taste for Jazz or Classical music also have an appreciation for art,”

explained creative artist Carrie Wareham.

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The art booths display diverse work by artists from India, America, England, Lebanon, and Russia.

International, diverse and creative, next year around, pay special attention to these artsy fringes – they provide a soothing and inspiring experience with a backdrop of old-school Jazz charm.

Were you one of the artists at Dubai Jazz Fest? Would you like you work displayed there? Share your thoughts in the comments below.