Arirang Games: Goodbye to the greatest show on Earth

The curtain may have fallen for the last time on North Korea’s record-breaking Arirang Games, a breathtaking mixture of dance, gymnastics, opera, circus and political propaganda. While nothing is official yet, speculation is mounting that the Games will be replaced from 2012 with a new show devoted to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim il-Sung. The Arirang Games began in 2002 to mark the 90th anniversary of Kim’s birth. Organizers say the Games “ideological theme promotes social development and train not only the people's physiques but also their inner power.” Shows, which run several times a week from August to October, feature up 100,000 performers, gaining the event an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s biggest performance. Among those thousands of performers is a 30,000-strong flip card animation team made up entirely of schoolchildren from Pyongyang and surrounding towns. The venue for the Games is the 150,000-capacity May First stadium, the largest sports ground in the world aside from Formula One arenas. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to what may be the last ever show on October 15. The day before the performance, I read a feature about the Games in North Korea’s state-run English language paper, The Pyongyang Times. “In Scene VI of Act II ‘Higher and Faster’ spectators can imagine the stunning happenings that take place concurrently in the country,” the Pyongyang Times said. Scene III of Act III was described as a “depiction of the fulfilling life the Korean people are leading under the l oving care of the Workers' Party of Korea.” "As the name of the scene tells, the people are willing to follow the Party forever,” choreographer Kim Kwang Sok told the paper. Our guide during our week-long visit to North Korea told us current Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, “a genius in all spheres” had worked on the show’s conception with artists, musicians and choreographers. He did an excellent job, it has to be said. The Games last for around an hour and a half, and there is not a boring second. The show tells the history of modern North Korea, from the brutal occupation by the Japanese to the Korean War and rounds up with the achievements of today’s socialist state. The performance is full of symbolism that may be lost on most foreigners, from the rising sun (a reference to Kim il-Sung, the “eternal sun of mankind”) to the snowy mountain representing the birthplace of Kim Jong-il. But, in reality, it’s not necessary to know a single thing about the Korean peninsula’s sad history to be captivated by the Games. The show came to an end and we trailed out of the stadium into the dark streets of Pyongyang. If it was the last ever show, there was – as far as we could tell, anyway – nothing to mark the occasion. As ever with North Korea, it is difficult to find anything out. But it looks a good bet that the North Koreans will come up with a new - and equally spectacular - show for next year’s mass celebrations. I wish I’d bought that Arirang Games t-shirt now. I’ll probably never get another chance.