UEFA Champions League Final: Europa-Park performs an exclusive opening show in the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul

Who will be the successor of the FC Porto? On May 25^th 2005, the new champion of European football will be crowned - and Europa-Park, Germany's biggest theme park, will participate live with a gigantic opening show.
After the final 2004, which took place in the "Arena auf Schalke?, the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul (Turkey) will now be the venue of a UEFA football competition for the first time this year. Already for the second time, Europa-Park has been invited by the UEFA to present a gigantic show performance with more than 800 performers - among them award-winning artists, musicians, dancers and 600 recruits of the Turkish Military Academy.

"Searching For My Golden Shadow - Champions League Meets Turkey? is a top class eight minute show performance, which will be seen by millions of television viewers all over the world and several thousand football fans. With this show, Europa-Park again sets international standards for important sports events and demonstrates its impressive competence in the staging and organisation of performances.
The gigantic show is a composition of music, dance, theater, artistry and sportive skills. The international artists of Europa-Park turn the green football field into a colossal stage and the Attatürk Stadium becomes an "Arena of Champions?.

The artistic idea was created by Europa-Park's stage director Enno-Ilka Uhde, who realises this vanguard spectacle by order of the UEFA. The title of the show "Searching For My Golden Shadow - Champions League Meets Turkey? can be taken literally: By history, economy, cultural development and actual politics, Turkey and Europe are connected inseparably to each other like a person to its own shadow. With music, dance and artistic elements, the artists of Europa-Park stage this inseparable alliance in an impressive and vivid way.
Top-level international football deserves a first-class show performance - this is Europa-Park's maxime for this year's opening show of the Champions League Final in Istanbul.

With 3,7 million visitors last year, Europa-Park is by far the biggest theme park in Germany and the best-attended seasonal leisure park worldwide. On an area of 70 hectares, the visitors can experience more than 100 attractions and shows as well as the cultural and architectural diversity of Europe.
Meanwhile, Europa-Park developed from a being "just? a leisure park into a renowned address for conferences and a popular location for TV productions. Moreover, Europa-Park has become a popular short-break destination for guests from all over Europe, because of its three 4-star hotels.

The UEFA Champions League Final will be broadcasted live from the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul on May 25^th at 8.15 pm on SAT 1.