7th Asian Winter Games, Astana-Almaty 2011 - Opening Ceremony

I've seen this opening ceremony about 5 times. It was one of the most impressive, and greatest, never I've watched an artistic segment for the Asiad this long.

Quick background, the 7th Asian Winter Games were held in Astana (now Nur-Sultan, the capital city) and Almaty (the largest city) in Kazakhstan. This is one of the first (if not the first) multi-sport in Kazakhstan after the USSR was dissolved. This multi-sport opened more possibilities for the higher event, the Winter Olympics, in which they did bid for 2022, but they lost it to Beijing by just 4 votes. However, they did set out to host the 2017 Winter Universiade, however it was only hosted in Almaty. But yeah, Kazakhstan sure has a great taste in sport. Also, this is Indonesia's debut in the Asian Winter Games, however no athletes made its debut, just an official holding the flag.

The opening ceremony was held on January 30, 2011, in Astana Arena, the largest stadium in Kazakhstan. It began at 6 PM local time and lasted approximately 3 hours. The artistic segment, after the Parade of Nations, featured, most importantly, the history of Kazakhstan, featuring more than 700 performers, and it's one of the longest. And the fireworks finale was impressive, just look at that.

Timestamps coming soon.