15 000 people attended the opening ceremony of European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011

Member of the board of Tallinn 2011 Jaanus Mutli thanked everyone who came to the Theatre Square on New Year’s Eve to celebrate the start of Capital of Culture. „I saw thousands of happy faces during that night and I hope that all of them will attend many other events of Capital of Culture during 2011,“ said Mutli.

The highlight moment of the opening ceremony of European Capital of Culture at Theatre Square in Tallinn was the arrival of an UFO.The UFO, hanging from a 100 m crane, was purpose-built of steal, plywood and foil for the Capital of Culture opening ceremony.Immediately before the arrival of the UFO the spectators saw a video clip in which the giants of European culture – the Coliseum of Rome, Eiffel Tower of Paris and Brandenburg Gates from Berlin – landed in the new European Capital of Culture. The clip was produced by creative director Andrus Kõresaar and Produktsioonigrupp OÜ.

„Every capital of culture throughout the 25 years has attempted to amaze with something unprecedented during the opening ceremony. But considering the different budgets, we are not so wealthy as to import big international names. So we decided to take a more creative path,“ commented the creative director of the opening ceremony, Foundation Tallinn 2011 programme director Jaanus Rohumaa. „Half-jokingly we could say, we sent invitations to very far away and received a reply – our invitation reached the universe,“ added Rohumaa.

Together with the team of three the UFO weighed almost 1000 kg. In addition to Andres Mirme, who came out of the machine dressed as an alien to wave to people, the flying saucer also housed two helpers, Oliver Kulpsoo and Priit Kukk, who took care of the lights and laser rays of the UFO. The UFO was designed by Enar Tarmo, the technical director of Von Krahl theatre and Stunts OÜ, it was built by Management OÜ. The live broadcast on Estonian TV was watched by 250 000 viewers.

The photos of the opening event are in the Experimental Gallery: http://galerii.tallinn2011.ee

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