2015 Pan American Games opening ceremony

The opening ceremony of the 2015 Pan American Games took place on Friday July 10, 2015, beginning at 8:00 p.m. EDT at the Rogers Centre (Pan Am Dome) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The opening ceremony was produced and directed by Cirque du Soleil. The production was the largest event produced by the company ever, and cost approximately $30 million CAD to produce.

An audience of 45,000 were in attendance at the venue (sold out crowd). There were 625 performers from 25 nationalities.

The tickets for the ceremony ranged between CA$100 and CA$350. It was later announced in January 2015 that tickets to the ceremony were sold out.

The cultural segments of this opening ceremony were themed around the journey and aspirations of an athlete, from their dreams, to reality. The stage was a: 85 x 85 diamond-shaped stage surrounded by four island 20 x 20 stages. Directly behind the stage, was five spaced 22 x 40 Strong MDI screens hung side-by-side to form a 126 x 40 surface for video.

The ceremony began with 20 performers representing the Four Ancestral Nations (and four seasons) of the Greater Golden Horseshoe region:Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation (four members move to the corners of the island, surrounding a shaman holding an eagle staff. They perform a ritual as an echo to the central indigenous concept of the four directions. It is autumn), Métis Nation of Ontario (a traditional scene where two men return from a fur hunt in a canoe, with snow and fog in the background. Three women welcome them with a celebration dance. It is winter), Six Nations of the Grand River (they enact the sky woman creation story. It is spring) and Huron-Wendat Nation (three women are growing food, two men give them shell necklaces and surrounding them is a wheat field. It is summer). Each ancestral nation was set on one of the four islands, which symbolizes the four directions. The stadium represented a womb, where tradition says indigenous people learn drumming from their mother's heartbeats. These drumbeats announce the arrival of the eagle.

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