The opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics was held on Friday night at the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium and it was a resounding success. On Saturday, CGTN spoke to the executive director of the gala, Song Seung-hwan. 

Song began acting on television at the age of eight and later became a producer with more than 50 plays and musicals to his name. Yet despite his wealth of experience and success, directing the Olympics opening ceremony was a unique challenge.

First of all, the venue was new and specifically designed for the games' opening and closing ceremonies. 

Its remote location in the mountain resort of PyeongChang meant added difficulties in getting the cast of the performance to and from the venue for rehearsals. These difficulties were expensive to overcome and consumed a large portion of the budget, which, compared to that of the same ceremony for the Sochi, London, or Beijing Games, was very small – only about 10 percent of the amount spent on those galas. This forced Song to be more creative in his approach and to find different ways of telling his story.

Song’s overall concept for the ceremony was harmony, which was showcased through examples of traditional Republic of Korea (ROK) culture and the progress of the country into its modern state. The ROK is now known as a high-tech hub, and that too was shown in the ceremony through the use of artificial intelligence, drones, 5G technology, and a lot of LEDs. Yet despite the glitz of the gadgets, the focus remained on the human performers.

Another difficulty was the decision by the DPRK in early January to join the Games, about one month before the opening ceremony. 

ROK and the DPRK marched into the stadium together as a unified Korea, which meant Song had to make some late changes to his performance, particularly the finale – the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. 

On the night of the actual Opening Ceremony, Song admitted he was highly nervous. Adding to the tension was the fact that the final torch exchange between the ROK and DPRK athletes to Kim Yuna had never been rehearsed. But much to his relief, all went as planned and the entire ceremony came off in spectacular fashion and the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics began with a bang – literally with a burst of fireworks.