BY HERMOINE MACURA-NOBLE
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES KUWAIT
Expo 2020 Dubai’s star-studded Opening Ceremony will be streamed live to more than 430 locations across the UAE, giving everyone the chance to participate in the mind-blowing spectacle, wherever they might be, say organisers.
This will be followed a night later by fireworks displays in Dubai, marking the first full day of the Expo in a spectacular visual celebration commemorating the journey from winning the bid in 2013 to opening the first World Expo in the MENA region.
Starting tomorrow, the nation-wide Opening Ceremony viewing parties will take place across the UAE, thanking the nation for its support and inviting everyone to come together to celebrate this momentous occasion for Dubai, the UAE and the GCC region as a whole.
Screens will be set up in locations ranging from airports and shopping malls to hotels and other landmarks in the UAE, relaying the incredible music and cultural performances as they happen.
Viewers from anywhere in the world can also join the evening’s proceedings via a global live stream, available on virtualexpo.world and Expo TV from 1930 GST onwards.
Among those slated to perform are world-famous tenor Andrea Bocelli; Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling British singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding and international mega-star pianist Lang Lang.
Expo 2020 Dubai has also revealed today details of the eye-grabbing visitor experience at Alif – The Mobility Pavilion, where visitors will be taken on a voyage through time and space to discover how people, goods, ideas and data are interacting in ever more complex ways.
The visitor experience begins 4,500 years ago in Saruq Al Hadid, a settlement in the Dubai desert that had extensive relations with areas of the Gulf, the Levant and West Asia, demonstrating the enduring strategic importance of this region.
Next, they will encounter towering nine-metre-tall photo-realistic figures from the Golden Age of Arab Civilisation – including ancient navigator Ibn Majid and celebrated explorer Ibn Battuta – whose innovations helped drive forward global mobility throughout the centuries.
Marjan Faraidooni, Chief Experience Officer, Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “We are proud that this must-see pavilion celebrates the Arab world as a leading light in mobility across the ages, changing perceptions of what this region has achieved. We hope that visitors, especially young Arabs, will leave this experience inspired – realising that anything is possible, motivated to make a difference in our world and looking with optimism to a future when we connect and work together on a global scale.”
One of the first global mega-events to take place since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Expo 2020 runs from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022, inviting visitors from around the world to join the making of a new world and experience a six-month journey of human creativity, innovation, progress and culture.
The first Australian English speaking News Anchor in the Middle East. She is also the Author of Faces of the Middle East and Founder of US-based 501c3 charity – The House of Rest which helps to ease the suffering of victims of war. For more from our Contributing Editor, you can follow her on Instagram, here.
