August 31, 2012
On this afternoon, in the “bridge city”, theater and ideal frames of the event start.
12000 participants in Budapest and thousands connected in their countries will follow the event through a world direct satellite television, shot by 4 national and regional television, one live streaming in 8 languages (http://www.genfest.org/live), one web TV, 7 official channels on Facebook in 7 languages and other social networks.
The Genfest numbers – 104 countries: almost 8500 from Europe (3700 from Eastern Europe), 850 from Asia, 1300 from Americas, about a hundred from Africa and a small group from Oceania, 250 from the Middle East. Two thirds are Christians from different churches, about a hundred are from other religions, and a significant participation of people from other cultures. Genfest is translated into 27 languages.
SportArena, at 3 p.m. The gray deck area becomes multicolor with the arrival of the participants of Genfest. The householder youths fromEastern Europereceive the participants with stands that show their hospitality tradition. In fact, it is the first time, since its first edition, in 1973, that Genfest leavesItalyand lands at Budapest.
In SportAréna, groups of youths with flags of their countries pass from stand to stand, each one representing a country from the part of the world they live. There are also some artistic performances.
At 7:30 p.m., punctual, the program in SportAréna start. Initial greetings of the three presenters, welcome speech of Budapest Mayor István Tarlós, greetings of the president of the General Conference of UNESCO, Katalin Bogyay, reading of the greetings of Pope Benedict XVI transmitted by the letter of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Afterwards, the concert. There are 22 songs chosen amongst several written by participants from all around the world and sent throughout the last months. Sometimes a DJ on minor stage present some remix of historical pieces from the last Genfests.
The youths who are in arena dance, sing, are in tune with the climate which are created. A joy climate shared by everybody. At Budapest Aréna, everybody is an actor.
But also in the rest of the world the participation is huge: it is announced on the stage that more than 400,000 people follow this night through direct live internet streaming and social networks.
Updated on 31 August 2012
UF – BF
Information Service Focolare – SIF
