Only two days to go and the 9th World Choir Games 2016 in Sochi, Russia will start with a spectacular Opening Ceremony. 283 choirs and 12.000 participants from 76 nations will meet in Sochi from July 6-16 for a huge choral celebration with Celebration and Friendship Concerts and, of course, to perform in the largest international choir competition in the world.

In the festival office there has been a buzz of activity going since days – team members from at least 14 different nations arrived in Sochi and immediately started with the preparations for the first choir to arrive and register for the event: Choir bags needed to be packed with individual schedules, official program books, participant badges and information about this year’s host city. But now everything is ready to welcome the first choirs at the registration desk.

Also the President of the World Choir Games has arrived in Sochi already and was warmly welcomed by the hosts at the airport. A choir from Russia awaited him in the arrival hall and performed a special welcome song – a promising beginning for two weeks full of choral music! Some pictures of Günter Titsch’s arrival can be found here.

And even the first juror has been spotted while sitting at the registration desk and learning about his individual event program: Welcome Tigran Hekekyan from Armenia!

Some of the participants have also already arrived in Sochi and are expected to come to the festival office in order to register for the event this afternoon. They travelled all the way from Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and also China to take part in the 9th World Choir Games – that’s amazing!

Festival mood is on its way – just two days to go… World Choir Games 2016, here we come!