Turkey 2013 set for spectacular opening ceremony

The host city of Kayseri will take centre stage for the FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013 opening ceremony on Friday 21 June.

The spectacular event will take place between the Cuba-Korea Republic and Portugal-Nigeria matches at the Kayseri Kadir Has stadium. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter will attend both games as well as the opening ceremony.

The 14-minute ceremony is scheduled to begin at 20:02 and will showcase Anatolian culture, including a giant caravansary, hand-woven carpets and a camp fire. The show will commence with the grand opening of the caravansary door accompanied by Gece’s official song for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, Yıldızlar Buradan Yükseliyor.

Six hundred performance artists and a folk dance group with 175 dancers will take part in the show. Following the official U-20 World Cup song, the ceremony will conclude with a finale featuring a specialist dance company performing two traditional dances: the carpet dance and the fire dance.

The hand-woven carpets will display the word, ‘Welcome’, in the official languages of the 24 participating nations and be exhibited around the edge of the pitch along with their corresponding flags.

Source: http://www.fifa.com