Only 6 percent of tickets for the upcoming World Games have been sold in the month since they went on sale, a Kaohsiung City Government official said yesterday.
Answering a question from Democratic Progressive Party Councilor Huang Shu-mei (黃淑美) at the Kaohsiung City Council, Tourism Bureau Director-General Lin Kun-san (林崑山) said only about 23,000 out of the 350,000 World Games tickets have been sold.
OPENING CEREMONY
The majority of the tickets that have been sold were for the opening ceremony, Lin said, adding that he hoped the rest of the tickets would be sold out by the time the Games start in mid July.
Meanwhile, in related news, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) rebutted media speculation that the city government was trying to compete with the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) by holding an inaugural concert at the World Games Main Stadium three days after the SAC’s inaugural ceremony.
The Kaohsiung Organizing Committee will mark the inauguration of the stadium on May 20 by holding a concert featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, who will perform Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, with choral programs by the Vienna State Opera Choir, the National Experimental Chorus, the National Sun Yat-sen University Music Department Women’s Chorus and the Kaohsiung Medical University Singers.
COMPETITION
The SAC plans to hold a grand inaugural ceremony at the stadium on May 17, prompting media to speculate that the city government and the SAC were engaged in a competition.
“[The concert] on May 20 is meant to test the stadium, including its capacity, security and the transportation links to and from it,” Chen said.
JUNE TEST
Chen said the city government also planned to hold another “test” at the stadium in June.
“We are not trying to compete for anything. [The test] is necessary in terms of the preparation process [for the Games],” she said.
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