Festive mood inundates SEA Games 31 opening ceremony

Southeast Asia’s 31st SEA Games formally kicked off on Thursday with the opening ceremony at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc declared the official start for the region’s biggest sports event, themed “For a Stronger Southeast Asia”, at the 40,000-seat stadium.

The colorful opening ceremony featured traditional and contemporary Vietnamese culture. It beautifully showcased laser lights, music, and dance, drew capacity crowds to the stadium, as well as to TVs, computers, phones and the like, dousing spectators in a fully festive mood.

Not just looking toward success as a major regional event, SEA Games 31 is expected to show solidarity and friendship, as a platform for cultural exchanges among the 11 regional countries – Brunei, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Featuring 40 sports and 523 events to be held in the Vietnamese capital and 11 nearby localities, the Games started with the first matches of the men’s football on May 6.

The Vietnamese delegation 31 consists of 1,341 members, including 951 athletes, 250 coaches, and 30 experts, and is led by Tran Duc Phan, Deputy General Director of the Sports Administration.

The Games, which will last until May 23, is an invitation to athletes, spectators and tourists from the region and elsewhere to come to Vietnam, the host country. It was slated for 2021 but was delayed due to the pandemic.

Vietnam first hosted the SEA Games in 2003, which was SEA Games 22. The event marked a milestone in the country’s deeper integration into the region.