Baku, Azerbaijan, June 27
Trend:
The Baku 2015 Closing Ceremony will provide a fitting tribute to the 6,000 athletes and 12,500 volunteers who made the inaugural European Games a resounding success.
Mr Azad Rahimov, Azerbaijan's Minister of Youth and Sports and Chief Executive Officer of Baku 2015, said yesterday: "We have made history here in Baku and I am sure that the Closing Ceremony will provide a lasting memory for the athletes who came to Azerbaijan to create this piece of sporting history."
The Closing Ceremony, like the Opening Ceremony on 12 June, will capture some of the essential ingredients of Azerbaijani culture and heritage, and, under the guidance of Mr Rahimov and Director of Ceremonies Catherine Ugwu, will be directed by James Hadley.
For the very last time in these inaugural European Games, the athletes will take centre stage and will be joined in celebration by their families, coaches, the exceptional Flamekeeper volunteers as well as commercial partners, the broadcasters, media and the population of Azerbaijan - and Baku in particular - who have all embraced the Games.
Mr Rahimov added: "The Flamekeepers deserve our special thanks and we should celebrate their contribution to these European Games. There was no tradition of volunteering in Azerbaijan before these Games but the Flamekeepers have not only worked tirelessly but have shown all our visitors the real meaning of a warm Azerbaijani welcome."
The spectacular Closing Ceremony has taken considerable planning with the aid of the production company Five Currents. It will showcase a cast of more than 1,600 volunteer performers representing Azerbaijan and 17 other countries.
Other key statistics of the Ceremony include:
• More than 20.5 million man-hours went into building the Olympic Stadium
• 10,000 pyrotechnics
• 5,000 hours of preparation on-site for the evening's pyrotechnics
• 120 pyrotechnic launch pads on the stadium roof
• 250 metres of aerial lines across the stadium, with a capacity to carry 7.5 tons
• 450m2 of LED floor tiles used on the three stages
• 500+ truckloads of freight and 100 tons of airfreight from 20 countries to create the Ceremony
• 800 speakers and 25 km of cabling for the sound system
• 2,000+ lighting fixtures
• 12,000+ ear pieces and 180,000+ recycled batteries used by the cast and crew
• 200 hours of programming to synchronise the fireworks with the music
The Closing Ceremony will be held in the newly-built Olympic Stadium in front of a capacity crowd of 68,000 people and a potential worldwide television reach of more than 800 million.