The spectacular opening brings fire and love above River Aura

Turku will open the Capital of Culture year 2011 with a three-day weekend full of events and activities on 14–16 January 2011. The opening performance “This Side, The Other Side” on the evening of Saturday 15 January is the single largest event of the year. Concerts and events for the entire family will draw the audience to the city centre.

On Sunday, the festivities will continue in the city districts and also elsewhere in the Finland Proper region. The audience is expected to include tens of thousands of visitors from across Finland and abroad.

The opening weekend of the Turku Capital of Culture year offers both city residents and visitors lots of interesting programme. Finnish and international guests will already arrive in Turku on Friday.

Public events will begin on Saturday at noon and climax with the evening’s opening act and the Logomo evening party.

On Sunday, the exhibition and event centre for the entire Capital of Culture year, Logomo, will be opened. Events and happenings will take place throughout the city and its region on Sunday.

“The Capital of Culture year puts Turku on the European map in a whole new way and shows the rest of the world what good culture is able to do. Right from the opening ceremony, the strong history of Turku as the oldest city in Finland will intertwine with an open-minded outlook on the future. In Turku, culture will do good for residents, visiting guests, companies and the surrounding region as a whole,” says Aleksi Randell, Mayor of the City of Turku.

Thousands of Turku residents will be part of the opening spectacle

The Walk the Plank group from the UK in cooperation with local artists and city volunteers will put up an unprecedented show to mark the main event of the opening weekend. The performance is written and directed by Mark Murphy. For the text parts in Finnish, Murphy has worked in cooperation with writer and theatre director Emma Puikkonen.

About 2,000 Turku residents will be part of the spectacle and the audience is expected to be in excess of tens of thousands.

The opening act “This Side, The Other Side” is one of the biggest shows ever seen in Finland. The theme for the performance will be Communication. The performance will draw inspiration from the entire history of Turku, from messaging fires to today’s telecommunication.

“The opening act is much more than a spectacle with fireworks and tricks – its contents address love, time and Turku, and how a River Aura of sorts flows through all of us,” writer Emma Puikkonen says.

Arrive well in advance on foot or by public transport

The performance will be carried out by international aerial acrobats, actors and dancers working together with Finnish performers and hundreds of Turku residents. A large choir has been gathered for the opening ceremonies which will perform Song for the Year, a song especially composed for the occasion, together with the audience.

The practical arrangements for the weekend require wide-scale traffic and safety measures. For example, the area surrounding Forum Marinum will be closed to traffic altogether, and the aerial space of River Aura will be closed for the duration of the opening show. The audience is requested to arrive at the event venue well in advance on foot or by public transport.

“The opening weekend has been heavily prepared all over the city throughout the autumn and great emotions and anticipation have been invested in the event. The weekend is becoming one of the highlights of the year. The opening ceremonies of the European Capital of Culture year 2011 will be attended by a great number of Finnish and foreign opinion leaders in culture, science, administration and politics,” says Cay Sevón, CEO of the Turku 2011 Foundation, which is responsible for preparing the Capital of Culture year.

See the programme for the opening ceremonies at www.turku2011.fi/en/opening-ceremonies. Further information on the traffic and safety arrangements for the opening weekend will be provided in early 2011.