Opening Show

At 7:30 this evening, the flags of every scout organization were paraded past the 45,000 attendees gathered at the World Point Stadium. Each nation’s name was read off, in English and Spanish, alphabetically by WOSM region: Africa, Arab, Asia-Pacific, Eurasia, Europe, and finally our host Region: Interamerica. 

With a backdrop of over 160 different flags, World Scout Committee Chairperson Craig Turpie officially opened the Jamboree with a speech. “This is your Movement”, he said, “this is your Jamboree… My encouragement to you is to make this Jamboree a life changing experience. Through scouts, we can make a better world… Now it’s up to you.”

As Craig left the stage, Bear Grylls, adventurer and Chief Scout, rappelled on to it. Although we come from all over the world, “We are all bounded by this,” he said, lifting up his neckerchief. “This scarf is about standing up for the environment, gender equality, about scouts helping where most needed, about taking care of our neighbors, about making the planet a more sustainable, better place.”

“Scouts. You. Are. Amazing.” he said. “Together we can do so much.”

Next, entrepreneur and the first Iranian in space, Anousheh Ansari, took the stage. She talked about the peace of seeing the world from the International Space Station, and how we’re responsible for taking care of it. This segued into the launch of her new app, NANO. NANO is a game in which you earn points by recycling and taking actions to protect the planet. These points can win real rewards. The app is available on the app store and the google play store, with this special early access just to scouts. 

The show ended with an innovative performance by Recycled Percussion, a band that performed primarily with repurposed other materials. The music was accompanied by an amazing drone show, tracing out the Jamboree Logo, the Scout Sign, and a world map, among other things. We all crawled off to our campsites under the lingering, blinking light of the drones.

Watch the whole show here.