{"id":17428,"date":"2013-01-19T00:16:13","date_gmt":"2013-01-18T22:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/billion-to-watch-opening-ceremony\/"},"modified":"2013-01-19T00:16:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-18T22:16:13","slug":"billion-to-watch-opening-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/billion-to-watch-opening-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Billion to watch opening ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tomorrow\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations\u2019 opening ceremony, which will be broadcast to a global TV audience estimated at one billion, is clearly a celebration of the continent\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday\u2019s dress rehearsals at the 94 000-seater Soccer City suggest a continent aware of its social ills \u2013 but even more vitally, its beauty and abundant resources.<\/p>\n<p>It will be about facing up to these ills, and overcoming them collectively, to compete globally.<\/p>\n<p>There will be a kaleidoscope of colours to reflect the continent\u2019s diversity and a huge focus on drums, with Afcon\u2019s accompanying theme: \u201cCelebrate Africa \u2013 The Beat at Africa\u2019s Feet\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Steinhobel, chairman of the VWV Group, the same agency that conceptualised the 2010 World Cup opening and closing ceremonies, appealed to football fans to come early.<\/p>\n<p>The gates at the stadium open at 2pm. The opening ceremony, which is expected to last 33 minutes, starts at 4pm.<\/p>\n<p>Among the performers is Sipho \u201cHostix\u201d Mabuse, who will perform one of his classics. Lira will belt out a Brenda Fassie number and Siphokazi will do a call and response style choral tune. \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/thetimes\/2013\/01\/18\/billion-viewers-to-watch-afcon-concert\" target=\"_blank\">TimesLive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tomorrow\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations\u2019 opening ceremony, which will be broadcast to a global TV audience estimated at one billion, is clearly a celebration of the continent\u2019s promise. Yesterday\u2019s dress rehearsals at the 94 000-seater Soccer City suggest a continent aware of its social ills \u2013 but even more vitally, its beauty and abundant resources. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-17428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}