Expect the best of London’s Notting Hill Carnival, Trinidad and Tobago’s beats, and the wild spirit of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro Carnival.
The carnival is coming to town. After a debut that brought 30-plus international artists and DJs to Dubai Media City Amphitheatre, Butterfly Carnival is fluttering back into town on 8 and 9 November 2025 for a weekend of music and masquerade.
This year’s event promises to be bigger and better, offering two days of high-energy sets and open-air spectacle, with organisers teasing international artists across two stages and three sound systems. Additionally, Butterfly Carnival 2025 will introduce a brand-new Carnival Street Parade that will weave through the site.
Omah Lay will headline this year’s event. As one of Africa’s most electrifying talents, he is a boundary-blurring artist whose sound seamlessly blends Afrobeats, R&B, and soul. With global anthems like “Understand,” “Soso”, and “Godly,” plus chart-topping collaborations with Justin Bieber and Ozuna, he has crossed borders, racking up more than one billion streams along the way. Omah Lay’s live sets are known to move from slow-burn grooves to euphoric sing-alongs.
The 2025 edition of Butterfly Carnival will blend Afrobeats, Amapiano, Dancehall, Reggaeton and Soca/Calypso into a city-wide party, while dancers, drummers and acrobats lifted the festival into full carnival mode. While full line-up details are still under wraps, last year saw a headline turn from the King of Dancehall himself, Beenie Man, in addition to an Escola de Samba featuring samba dancers and live bands.
The staging and programming at Butterfly Carnival nod to Caribbean, Brazilian and global street-carnival traditions, while the Dubai Media City Amphitheatre feels purpose-built for a sun-down crescendo. Think Notting Hill meets Rio de Janeiro, food trucks on the fringes, bars at the ready and carnival costumes aplenty.
Keep an eye on social channels for artist drops, parade timings and on-site details.
Butterfly Carnival tickets are available now and start from AED 149.
GO: Visit https://platinumlist.net for more information.