North Korea
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
Mass Games
This is probably one of the most amazing performances (of anything)
that I have ever seen. I'm afraid my pictures just can't do it justice.
The logistics of the whole event don't bear thinking about. Firstly the
May Day Stadium itself is the largest sports stadium in the world with
150, 000 seats.
The performance has two key elements. The first is the gymnastic
performers. In the 90 minute performance there are anywhere between
80,000 and 100, 000 performers depending on which piece of literature
you read
. They come on in waves of thousands and perform extremely complicated gymnastic routines in perfect syncronisation. The idea of
mass gymnastics is to emphasise group achievements rather than that
of the individual.
The second key element is the backdrop. This takes up one whole
side of the stadium and is made up of school children holding large
books with different coloured pages which make up a huge mosaic.
The children turn the pages to make up huge pictures. There are
around 12,000 card turners aged between 13 and 15.
This page shows some particularly fine examples of the performances.
Video of the 2001 Mass Games attended by Kim Jong Il.
The backdrops were amazingly detailed and even moved. Watching the
card turners warm up when we walked into the stadium was intimidating.
The mosaic was divided up into the different districts the children
represented. At the given signal each district changed the pages in
there card book while shouting.
I found this video on YouTube of the performance I went to
but on the evening before 14th April 2007.
One of my tour group commented that he found the Mass Games
more exciting than the birth of his first born son.
Unfortunately I didn't see Lionel anywhere at the performance which
was a terrible shame. His ticket must have got lost somehow.
