Anyone who has been pointing a camera at the crimson canopies spreading across Dubai this season now has a financial reason to keep shooting. The Dubai Culture and Arts Authority is running a public photography contest tied to the emirate’s flame tree bloom, with a grand prize of AED 15,000 on offer to whoever captures the best frame.
The contest is a joint effort between Dubai Culture and the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award, better known as HIPA. According to Emirates 24|7, the two organisers have set aside a combined AED 30,000 in cash awards across three winning slots. Beyond the top prize, second place takes AED 10,000 and third place earns AED 5,000.
Entering is built entirely around Instagram. Participants need to photograph something connected to the flame tree season and post it to a public account, attaching the hashtag #FlameTreeSeason. The post also has to follow and tag three accounts: @dubaiculture, @hipaae and @flametreeseason. Organisers have capped submissions at one per person, though photographers who already have older flame tree shots online are permitted to repost or reshare them, as long as the required hashtag and tags are included. A private account will not qualify — entries must be visible to the public.
The window for submissions closes on July 31, 2026, at 11:59 pm.
The flame tree, known scientifically as Delonix regia, is a Madagascar native that flowers each year ahead of the summer heat, painting streets, parks and school grounds in shades of orange and red before fading by the end of July.
The competition is one strand of a broader civic push around the tree this year. The drive traces back to a directive from Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, who in early May called for flame trees to be planted far more widely across the emirate’s streets, homes and public spaces, and released an animated video to mark the start of the season. In the weeks since, the campaign has spilled well past landscaping — Khaleej Times reported that cafés, salons and small businesses began folding the bloom into drinks, nail art and community giveaways, turning a planting initiative into a citywide cultural moment.
