2018 Asian Games opening ceremony

The opening ceremony of the 2018 Asian Games took place on Saturday, 18 August 2018, at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia. The event commenced at 19:00 Indonesia Western Time (UTC+7) and ended at 21:25 local time. Wishnutama Kusubandio (then CEO of Indonesian TV network NET.) was the creative director of the ceremony. The ceremony featured a stage designed as a 26-meter-high mountain with a waterfall. It weighed 600 tons, was 120 meters long and 30 meters wide, and included a display of Indonesian plants and flowers, as well as a mock volcano. The volcano symbolized Indonesia's location in the "Ring of Fire" surrounding the Pacific Ocean. Host event broadcasting company International Games Broadcast Services (IGBS) filmed the televised coverage of the ceremony live internationally.
Before the ceremony commenced, footage of the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, leaving Bogor Palace for Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in a motorcade, was shown. When the motorcade was blocked by a parade of Indonesian supporters, the President exited his car, put on a black helmet and rode a Yamaha FZ1 to escape the traffic jam. After performing some stunt maneuvers and helping a group of students and a teacher to cross the road, he was joined by a motorcycle escort and approached the stadium. As the first part of the footage ended, a motorcyclist dressed as the President entered the stadium and headed to the basement. The second part of footage then showed President Widodo riding the motorcycle before reaching an elevator, at which point the real President entered the VVIP seating area.
It was suggested that the motorcyclist who entered the stadium was a stunt double: unlike the President, the motorcyclist did not wear a ring on the left hand. After the games' closing ceremony, Thai stuntman Withithep Komolhiran (a.k.a. Suddum So) revealed himself on Instagram to be the President's stunt double in the filmed segments. He initially revealed his identity on Instagram after the opening ceremony, but the original post was later deleted. It is unclear whether the motorist performed live in the stadium was the same stuntman or not.
A ten-to-zero city central business district metropolitan countdown video was then shown featuring spots in Jakarta; the last two was the Jakarta's National Monument and the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
After that, 1,600 high school dancers from 18 senior high schools across Jakarta performed the Ratoh Jaroe dance, a traditional dance similar to Saman dance from Aceh, the westernmost province of Indonesia. As their performance progresses, they changed the colors of their costumes and forming different patterns which evolved into the flag of Indonesia in the end. The dance was choreographed by renowned singer and dancer Denny Malik.
During the Parade of Nations, North Korean and South Korean teams marched together under one unified flag of Korea. As per tradition, Indonesia as the host nation entered last. The "Ocean Corridor Music" was used throughout the 40-minute long segment.
The only dangdut song of the album, "Meraih Bintang", was chosen as the theme song for the 2018 Asian Games. It was written by Pay and sung by popular dangdut singer Via Vallen. She performed the song after all the athletes participated in the parade took their seat.
The ceremony observed a moment of silence to remember the victims of the recent Lombok earthquake right after the Indonesian flag was raised by the Paskibraka youth group troop. The troop comprised 70 students with 17 people as guides, eight people as flag bearers and 45 people as guards, which represents Indonesia’s Independence Day, 17 August 1945. After speeches from the Organizing Committee chairman Erick Thohir and president Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah of the Olympic Council of Asia, President Widodo officially opened the games.
Eight former athletes, who all had participated in the Summer Olympic Games, carried the OCA flag which was raised by the aforementioned troop. The former athletes were three badminton Olympic gold medalists, all in men's doubles; Christian Hadinata (1972 – albeit listed as 1978 Asian Games gold medalist since the 1972 event was not an official Olympic event), Candra Wijaya (2000), and Markis Kido (2008), two of the three athletes who won silver in 1988 women's team archery event – Indonesia's first ever Olympic medal; Lilies Handayani and Kusuma Wardhani, bronze medalist in 2000 Olympics women's 48 kg weightlifting Sri Indriyani, and two Asian Games medalists who did not win any medals in the Olympics; Lely Sampurno (silver medalist on 50 metre pistol in the 1962 shooting event, participated on 25 metre pistol event in 1984) and Suharyadi (gold medalist on mixed doubles in the 1990 tennis event, participated on men's singles in 1984 and men's doubles in 1988 and 1992). After the raising, Indonesian basketball player Arki Dikania Wisnu and badminton umpire Wahyana read the athlete's and referee's oath.
Soon afterwards was the creative segments, divided into five parts: Water, Earth, Wind, Fire, and Energy of Asia. The water, earth, wind and fire depict the natural beauty of Indonesia and also the country's courage and competitive spirit, while Energy of Asia, the final segment named after the games motto, was about how future generations will help build Indonesia into a leader of tomorrow while remembering their guiding principles of respect and equality.
During the Fire segment, there were Balinese-clad dancers carrying drums and some carried two-end torches. They formed a formation to make way for the final torch relay. The games torch was relayed by Indonesia's former Asian Games gold medalists; Lanny Gumulya (women's 3 metres springboard diving in 1962), Arief Taufan Syamsuddin (men's kumite 60 kg karate in 1998), Yustedjo Tarik (men's singles tennis in 1982), Supriyati Sutono (women's 5000 metres athletics in 1998), and Oka Sulaksana (men's mistral heavy sailing in 2002). Indonesia's first Olympic gold medalist Susi Susanti – who won the coveted title in the 1992 badminton women's singles – became the final bearer and lit the volcano's crater. It was followed by aerial and ground fireworks bursts which ended on the actual cauldron located on the southeast of the stadium; the flame itself lit up before the ground fireworks reach the end of the cauldron. The lit-up was followed by aerial fireworks bursts and a "Set Your Soul on Fire" song which sung by some singers, including Indonesian gospel singer Sidney Mohede.
The transition from the four elements segment to the "Energy of Asia" segment was filled by Indonesian-born French singer Anggun singing "Pemuda", a 1979 song written by Candra Darusman of Chaseiro band, who is the younger brother of politician Marzuki Darusman. He was also present during the ceremony. After some modern dances, the ceremony was concluded with the performance of the games' first-released official song "Bright as the Sun" sung by 4 of the song's artists; Ariel, Rian Ekky Pradipta, Sheryl Sheinafia, and Cakra Khan, complete with massive fireworks bursting from the stadium's roof.
Here is a list of artists and musicians who performed during the ceremony. All of them are Indonesians.
All 44 contingents participated in the parade, the order begins with Afghanistan and ended with host Indonesia. Each contingent was led by a representative official that wore a bird-shaped Garuda costume while carrying each country’s name placard. The costume was designed by Dynand Fariz, founder of the annual Jember Fashion Carnaval.
Joko Widodo's entrance drew comparisons to the London 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony's Happy and Glorious segment, which featured Daniel Craig (as James Bond) and Queen Elizabeth II making an impressive entrance with a helicopter, and the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony's Warming up! Tokyo 2020 segment, in which the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe made an appearance by "coming through" Warp Pipe from the Mario Bros. video game.