North Korea kicks off Arirang Festival
Source: Agencies |
August 4, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NORTH Korea has opened this year's massive dance and gymnastics performance known as the Arirang Festival.
Named after a traditional Korean love song, the show typically features thousands of gymnasts in synchronized maneuvers and giant mosaics formed by children turning pieces of colored paper. Versions of the mass games have been staged in 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009.
Senior North Korean officials, including Yang Hyong Sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, watched the opening performance at Pyongyang's May Day Stadium on Monday evening, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. The festival will run through October 10.
KCNA said spectators were mesmerized by performers who presented dynamic gymnastic movements, beautiful music, elegant dances, ever-changing background scenes and gorgeous electronic displays.
"It's very great, really great, fantastic theater here and performing is perfect. That's one of the best things in North Korea I have seen," Andreas Heckes, a German tourist told international TV news agency APTN.
The festival made its debut in 2002 to commemorate the birth of the late founding leader Kim Il Sung of the Democratic People's Repubic of Korea, father of North Korea's current leader Kim Jong Il.
Over the years, the festival has attracted more than 12 million people, including 118,000 foreigners, according to a recent report in the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
In 2000, Kim Jong Il took visiting then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to a mass performance that was a precursor to the Arirang show, the highlight of which was a giant mosaic displaying a rocket flying into the sky.
Named after a traditional Korean love song, the show typically features thousands of gymnasts in synchronized maneuvers and giant mosaics formed by children turning pieces of colored paper. Versions of the mass games have been staged in 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009.
Senior North Korean officials, including Yang Hyong Sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, watched the opening performance at Pyongyang's May Day Stadium on Monday evening, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. The festival will run through October 10.
KCNA said spectators were mesmerized by performers who presented dynamic gymnastic movements, beautiful music, elegant dances, ever-changing background scenes and gorgeous electronic displays.
"It's very great, really great, fantastic theater here and performing is perfect. That's one of the best things in North Korea I have seen," Andreas Heckes, a German tourist told international TV news agency APTN.
The festival made its debut in 2002 to commemorate the birth of the late founding leader Kim Il Sung of the Democratic People's Repubic of Korea, father of North Korea's current leader Kim Jong Il.
Over the years, the festival has attracted more than 12 million people, including 118,000 foreigners, according to a recent report in the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
In 2000, Kim Jong Il took visiting then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to a mass performance that was a precursor to the Arirang show, the highlight of which was a giant mosaic displaying a rocket flying into the sky.
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