Arirang Festival

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The Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance Arirang are held in the Rungnado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea to celebrate the late Communist leader Kim Il-sung's birthdate on April 15. The opening event of the two month festival are the mass games, which are famed for the huge mosaic pictures created by thousands of very well trained and disciplined school children, each holding up coloured cards, in an event known in the West as a "card stunt", accompanied by complex and highly choreographed group routines performed by tens of thousands of gymnasts and dancers.

In August 2007, the Arirang Mass Games were recognised by Guinness World Records as the biggest event of its kind. In recent years, the DPRK has opened up the reclusive state to foreign tourists to watch one of the many performances. ^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• BBC News article from 2002
• Account by Western visitor
• Strangest Show on Earth - Guardian 2005
• North Korea Uncovered, (North Korea Google Earth) See the May Day stadium where Arirang is held and its surroundings on Rungra Island. You can also visit the Kim il Sung stadium and East Pyongyang Stadium where Mass Games have been held in the past.

[edit] Further Reading

• Mass Gymnastics in Korea, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 2002, Softcover, 48 pages