Party-hard Dubai ponders new workweek debate: When’s brunch?

Party pooper: With a city skyline view, a DJ wearing a face mask performs music, during brunch, at a hotel in Dubai. The Middle East’s financial hub has shifted its weekend this year from Friday and Saturday to the Western-style Saturday and Sunday. — AP

DUBAI: Friday will never be the same again. For those with means in Dubai, the former first day of the weekend carried a gluttonous party tradition – an hourslong affair with infinite supply of seafood, pizza, dessert and Veuve Clicquot champagne set to pulsing music known simply in this city-state as “Friday brunch.”

But starting this year, the United Arab Emirates shifted its weekend from Friday and Saturday to Saturday and Sunday – a move to align with global markets and Western schedules.