FEI European Championships Aachen 2015: Opening ceremony is going to exceed all limits

On August 11th, 2015, we can look forward to a massive, emotional, spectacular, record-setting show! Welcome to the Opening Ceremony of the FEI European Championships Aachen 2015.

The starting shot for these unique European Championships will comprise of a magnificent show in the Main Stadium, which seats a crowd of 40,000. Almost 1,000 people and several hundreds of horses will take part, a European Championships hymn will be composed especially for the event and there will be loads of imaginative costumes. At the European Championships Aachen 2015 from August 11th-23rd, where the five disciplines jumping, dressage, driving, vaulting and reining will be staged at one location for the first time ever, Europe’s best equestrian athletes will be battling it out for the gold, silver and bronze medals.

During the Opening Ceremony, the almost 120-year animated history of the organisers, the Aachen-
Laurensberger-Rennverein, will be re-enacted in a lively and impressive manner. A journey through the past decades, depicted by cart horse racing, elegant side-saddle riders, eventers and historic carriages, the development of the equestrian show in Aachen, unforgettable moments, victories, defeats, heroes and stories will whisk the spectators back into past eras. Not to forget the fantastic spectators, of course, which Aachen is famous for all over the globe.

You too can take part in various campaigns during the Opening Ceremony. After all, the motto of the European Championships is: “Be part of it”. This means the whole stadium will be celebrating! And the memories of the fantastic FEI World Equestrian Games 2006 will also be aroused: The impressive state stud quadrille comprising of 64 stallions from all of the German state studs and their riders wearing the traditional uniforms will be travelling to Aachen again to put in an amazing performance at the Opening Ceremony. The group’s first and only performance so far was at the FEI World Equestrian Games in 2006.

This unique display on the “Holy Grass“ thrilled the crowd back then. Nine years later they are back: The impressive quadrille will be doing the honours once again in Aachen, the “Mecca of the equestrian sport”.