Overview

“Expo 2020 Dubai” was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, one year later than planned because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A registered Expo (International Registered Exhibition) under the International Exhibitions Bureau (Bureau International des Expositions, BIE), it occupied a 438-hectare site in Dubai South and ran for 182 days. It is commonly described as the first Expo in the Middle East, but that is accurate only for its category: it was the first registered Expo in the region. Two special exhibitions, a smaller category, had already taken place in Israel: Expo 1953 Jerusalem and Expo 1956 Beit Dagon. Expo 2020 Dubai took place during the UAE’s Golden Jubilee year and recorded 24,102,967 visits.

Origins and the bid

The United Arab Emirates was elected host on November 27, 2013, by the BIE Member States at the General Assembly in Paris. Four cities competed: São Paulo, Brazil; Dubai; Ekaterinburg, Russia; and Izmir, Turkey. Dubai led every round of the secret electronic ballot, with 77 votes in the first round, 87 in the second, and 116 in the third and final round, against 47 for Russia. The original plan called for the Expo to run from October 20, 2020, to April 10, 2021.

In 2020, with participating countries struggling to prepare during the pandemic, the UAE asked to move the dates. Under the BIE Convention, such a change requires a two-thirds majority of Member States. Remote voting by the delegates of the BIE’s 170 Member States opened on April 24, 2020, reached the required majority on May 4, and closed on May 29, 2020, approving new dates of October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022. The Expo kept the name Expo 2020 Dubai.

Theme and subthemes

The theme, “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,” was divided into three subthemes: Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability. Each gave its name to one of three thematic districts, arranged like petals around a central plaza, and each district had its own thematic pavilion: Mission Possible for Opportunity, designed by AGi Architects; Alif for Mobility, designed by Foster + Partners with a partly open-air 340-meter track; and Terra for Sustainability, designed by Grimshaw with a large overhanging roof, solar panels and “solar trees.”

Pavilions and international participation

The Expo welcomed 192 countries, and the BIE counts 200 participants in all. For the first time in Expo history, every participating country had its own pavilion, and countries were placed according to the subtheme they chose rather than by geography. At the heart of the site, the UAE Pavilion by Santiago Calatrava, modeled on “a falcon in flight,” connected to the central plaza.

That plaza, Al Wasl, joined the three districts under a domed steel trellis designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, whose pattern echoed the Expo logo and which served as a 360-degree projection surface. HOK prepared the site masterplan, and Asif Khan designed the three 21-meter-high entrance gates. The gated area also held multiple stages, parks, public spaces and more than 200 food and beverage outlets, while the Expo 2020 Village, logistics areas, transport links, hotels and a public park lay outside the gates.

Visitors and services

The Expo relied on a volunteer force of 30,000 people and, according to its organizers, reached 251.2 million people virtually through a 3D re-creation of the site and 360-degree tours, along with about one million school visits. The BIE called it the largest global gathering since the start of the pandemic. The BIE-Cosmos Prize was awarded to the N/a’an ku sê Foundation, and the closing ceremony at Al Wasl Plaza featured performances by Christina Aguilera, Norah Jones and Yo-Yo Ma before the BIE flag passed to Japan for Expo 2025 Osaka. BIE President Jai-chul Choi said the Expo “has shed light on the world of possibility that awaits future generations.”

Legacy

Legacy was planned from the start. At closing, the site was set to become a new neighborhood, first announced as District 2020, with about 80% of the Expo’s built infrastructure to be repurposed as a “15-minute city.” Renamed Expo City Dubai, it opened to visitors on October 1, 2022, the anniversary of the Expo’s opening, with Al Wasl Plaza, the Surreal water feature, the Garden in the Sky observation tower, Alif, Terra and the Vision and Women’s pavilions among its attractions. The organizers delivered their final report to the BIE in March 2023.

Held after a postponement approved by the BIE Member States, Expo 2020 Dubai showed how the event could adapt to a global crisis and plan for the reuse of its site well before opening day.