Dubai: world’s most costly party

More than 2,000 guests last night attended the most expensive launch party in history as the Atlantis hotel was opened in Dubai. The hotel's owners spent £15m on a party that featured one million fireworks - ten times as many as the opening ceremony at the Beijing olympics earlier this year.

Celebrity guests at the party on the man-made Palm Jumeirah island in the Persian Gulf included Robert De Niro, Janet Jackson, Denzel Washington, the Duchess of York, Sir Richard Branson and Dame Shirley Bassey. Singer Kylie Minogue performed for a reported £1.5m fee.

However, billionaire hotel tycoon Sol Kerzner admitted that the current global financial crisis had caused him to spend less on his guests: "I didn't lay on private jets. They either came in their own private jets or by regular airline."

Asked about the wisdom of spending so much during the financial crisis, event organiser Colin Cowie said: "People say, 'How do you have a party like this in these economic times?' But the funds were allocated a year ago, and you have to dream big to get a big result."