The opening and closing ceremonies of WorldSkills in Kazan will be held at the Central Stadium

(KZN.RU, December 12, Alina Berezhnaya). The Kazan Central Stadium will be the venue for the official opening and closing ceremonies of the WorldSkills-2019 Championship. Topical issues of preparation and conduction of the upcoming championship ceremonies were discussed during a field meeting with the participation of Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan.

The WorldSkills World Championship will gather young professionals from over 60 countries competing in 56 competencies. 24 thousand people will be able to see a unique show. For the first time in the practice of holding championships, residents and guests of the capital will be able to attend the opening ceremony, not just the participants. “The capacity of the stadium is 24 thousand people. 12 thousand seats will be reserved for the client group WorldSkills, the other half of the tickets will be sold among the spectators. Thanks to this opportunity, everyone will be able to see the event”, said Mikhail Leonov, the deputy general director of the Directorate of Sports and Social Projects. He added that this was the first experience for WorldSkills International. Tickets for the opening ceremony have never been sold before.

The opening ceremony will last 3 hours. Live broadcasts will be organized on the Internet for those who did not get to the ceremony. About 500 artists will attend the show. According to Mikhail Leonov, it will be the most technologically advanced, full of various special effects and interactive. The plot of the presentation is currently being finished.

Mikhail Leonov also talked about the preparation of the Central Stadium for a large-scale event. It is planned to repair the engineering networks and a number of facilities at the Central Stadium. The Mayor of Kazan noted that high-quality materials should be used for repairs. “Large-scale events are taking place at the Central Stadium, the championships of Russia, the European cups. There should be an appropriate training base”, said Ilsur Metshin.

Rustem Gafarov, the first deputy head of the Kazan Executive Committee, Andrey Lobov, the head of the Vakhitovsky and Privolzhsky districts’ administration, Svetlana Vostrikova, the chairperson of the Committee of Physical Culture and Sports, Roman Ivachev, the head of the Department for Sports Project Implementation, also attended the meeting.

The 45th WorldSkills World Championship will be held in Kazan from 22 to 27 of August 2019.