You guys — the World Cup opening ceremony at Estadio Azteca was absolutely wild and I am still processing it! The stadium itself is already a beast with its two massive rings seating up to 50,000 people each, so that's like 100k capacity right out of the gate. And then Shakira — she performed "La La La" multiple times throughout the night with dozens of Mexican dancers around her and it was pure energy. They had pyro going off everywhere and I cannot stop thinking about how huge this is as the tournament opener for Mexico City.

But there was also a darker side to the celebration because protests broke out at several sites including Zócalo and Tlatelolco Square where people demonstrated against government policy and FIFA. There were actual clashes between protesters and police, with some arrests made — one person even got picked up specifically for setting off unauthorized pyrotechnics inside the Azteca! That's serious escalation to open a tournament in this manner.

I cannot get over how much went into staging an event of this scale on June 16th as part of the massive US-Mexico-Canada World Cup. The sheer choreography, the pyrotechnic display spanning both rings, and the dozens of local performers all converging at once is honestly something else. If you want to see what I'm talking about there's some great concert footage online from Shakira's sets.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2ly928xz8go?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss