DUBAI // It was a rainbow-coloured Friday for Dubai residents who doused friends, family and strangers with multi-hued powder as part of the region’s first Colour Walk.

More than 1,200 people gathered at Zabeel Park for a five-kilometre walk during which they sprayed each other with coloured powder made from cornstarch and organic colouring.

The event draws from the Indian festival Holi and it aims to promote physical activity by getting children and adults out of the house.

“When we were finished, we were covered in every single colour,” said Colleen McGwin, a schoolteacher.

“People were throwing colour at each other and everybody was happy and didn’t mind strangers putting colour on them. Once we were out there, it was, ‘you need some blue? Some green’?”

Colour stations along the track added to the festivities by throwing coloured powder on participants who were given bright-coloured sunglasses to cover their eyes.

People walked twice around the park and, at every colour station, they were handed a different colour until the end of the race, when powder of all colours was available.

Families with young children, students and work colleagues started arriving at the park more than two hours before the event began.

“It was an amazing, vibrant and energetic day,” said Priya Robert, a human resources manager who participated with 10 relatives and friends.

“People were dancing and throwing colour in the air. There was a rainbow of colours. Kids were rolling around on the ground in colour.”

Karim Seifeddine, the head of corporate communications at Citibank, said it was a good way to get children outdoors.

“It is good to get together with family and have the children outside, instead of playing on their iPads,” he said.

“I’ve brought my friend and my sister has also brought her friend,” said his daughter, Yasmina, 11. “Throwing colour is just such fun.”

The organiser, Fernando Valle, decided to set up the event in Dubai after participating in a similar event last year in Los Angeles.

“It is a great experience; there is nothing quite like it,” he said. “It’s good to get people walking and having fun.”

rtalwar@thenational.ae