The weekend of 16/17 November, families enjoyed everything Dubai Design Week had to offer at d3. The free-to-attend programme featured a range of sights, sounds and experiences.

Throughout the weekend, the Design Souk - a festival of design, retail, food and live events on d3’s busiest strip of cafes and restaurants made its debut. Staged by Ripe Market, it featured an exciting combination of brands and designers selling products and accessories alongside live cooking stations. The Design Souk also hosted a series of arts and craft activities for children including fun robotics, origami and slime-making.

Music was provided throughout the weekend by DJs at the Design Souk, including live performances from the Neighbours on Friday. The weekend started off as Fictive by Empire Sessions hosted live music and performances at The Block - d3's urban beach and recreational community space for all the family that featured a range of experimental architecture installations. Hosted by MC Hype, the line-up included Soul & R&B from Eve Thomas, Blues and R&B by Tariq Mohammad and live poetry with Suhaib Alises.

Dubai Design Week's pop-up studio, Making Space; dedicated to children’s workshops, included 3d print workshops with Ethan&Co, sustainable design sessions with sustainability partner Bee’ah as well as a rolling collaborative project with thejamjar and a design challenge with Designathon Works. Sessions by Fun Robotics, Sharabassy Studio and Cocoa & Co were also featured.

Downtown Design’s final day on Friday 16 November was open to the public from 12-9pm and complimentary access was available to everyone that downloaded the Dubai Design Week app. Downtown Editions, the new element of last year’s fair hosted retailers and individual designers which will offer limited edition and collectable design. Also, The Forum will host workshops including insights into creative collaboration and communicating through play.

On stage, a series of designers gave their view and insights, including world-renowned designer Paola Navone, and a line-up of the UAE's brightest design talent brought together by Khalid Shafar under the banner of Local Learning with a focus on two projects he has led: UAE Design Stories and DRAK to RAK. The Audi Innovation Hub also staged talks with young design talent, including the pavilion's designer Riyad Jockaand pioneering 3d print designer and architect Manuel Jiminez Garcia.

All of the Dubai Design Week installations and exhibitions were open throughout the weekend, including pop-ups such as Tasmeem Facebook which hosted a range of workshops and performances. Tashkeel also ran sessions during the weekend for budding creatives as part of its Design & Making UAE programme.