Opening Ceremony of First European Games

Late in the evening on Friday the new stadium in Baku hosted a colorful opening ceremony of the first European Games.

The event was held with the maximum scale to show the history and culture of the country.

Application of modern technologies and electronic equipment alternately converted the center of the stadium in a desert, in the mouth of a volcano, verdant field, springs, and rising mountains.

Above the huge field appeared a carpet, abducting Europa by the mythical bull of Zeus on the background of a shimmering map of Europe and a huge pomegranate, from which its red grains scattered.

The plot with the LHC and speaking physicists did not fit in the ceremony.

From the ground there came out dancing people and a boy and a girl, coming from the depths, lit on the lights that acquired the contours of a man and from this fire they lit the torch of the Games as a huge disk.

All this was preceded by a presentation of something like Khamsa (Five Poems) by Nizami, when the heroes of famous works of Oriental miniatures arranged around a rotating stage and above them a guy with a girl hovered on a scale.

The ceremony started with a mosaic panel, when a couple of hundreds of young women "drew" carpet ornaments with their garments for a few minutes.

It was difficult to catch and build what was happening into a single logical thread. It was felt that the writer and director, first of all, wanted to surprise and not to tell.

The ceremony can be interpreted differently, but the lack of logical connection between the scenes was perhaps the weakest point of the ceremony and indirect evidence of unprofessional interference in the preparation.

Today, the Minister of Sport, Azad Rahimov announced that the ceremony cost 100 million AZN.  -02B-