Expo 2020 Dubai ends today: 'Iconic' all-night closing ceremony to be open to public

Expo 2020 Dubai's all-night closing ceremony will be open to the public and feature fireworks, concerts and loads of entertainment, organisers have said.

The main ceremony, which begins at 7pm, will be live-streamed across giant screens at various sites, including the Jubilee Stage, Festival Garden and the sports hubs. The celebrations will continue throughout the night, with jaw-dropping fireworks displays at midnight and 3am.

“The whole site is open to the public. We have a section in the lower garden which is closed for the VIP guests, but around the outside of Al Wasl and across the rest of the entire site, all visitors and members of the public will be able to see the ceremony," organisers said.

The Dubai Metro will run all night, as 'volumes and volumes of people' are expected, said Tareq Ghosheh, Chief Events and Entertainment Officer, Expo 2020 Dubai.

“The opening ceremony was iconic. Our closing ceremony will be iconic,“ he said.

The night will be packed with events that cater to all. Christina Aguilera, Norah Jones and Yo-Yo Ma are among the renowned artists who will perform at the world fair. "It's programming on steroids," Ghosheh said.

The main ceremony at Al Wasl Plaza will feature the young Emirati girl from the opening ceremony in September.

"So, our started with the ring and it end up with the link, because after doing its job, it has to go back to where it came from. And to be ready for the next generations to do their own part of the of the job when it is time for them. And effectively, this is the main arc of the story," organisers said.

Since Al Wasl Dome has been dubbed 'the beating heart' of the Expo 2020 Dubai site, that is exactly where the young girl will narrate the story of what she seen and experienced throughout the past six months.

One of the highlights will be a 10-minute segment called the ‘Garden of Memories’ that captures emotions of six months. The ‘Sea of Nations’ segment will see all the participating nations coming back on stage as they did during the opening ceremony. The Expo flag will also be handed over to Japan, the country that will host the next world fair in Osaka in 2025.

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“It never came to our mind that we will be a living example of how the world needs to react to a massive pandemic in a very agile way, an anti-fragile style of dealing with things in order to create such a successful 182 global days,” said Ghosheh.

“So, for Osaka, I think they need to do something similar. I hope that they will be as successful as we are,” he added.

The VIP guests of the closing ceremony will be school children from across the UAE, “the generation of the future that will carry the legacy of Expo 2020 Dubai forward,” said the organisers. They said it is their way of “reiterating our cornerstone of Expo 2020 legacy that by inspiring the young learners of today, we are empowering the leaders of tomorrow.”

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