After a late night last night, I didn’t drag myself out of bed until 10:30 this morning.
The only planned for today was attending the 2026 World Nomad Games opening ceremony tonight.
Now, I say “tonight” but really we started our odyssey to the ceremony at 2pm.
So, join me as I relive the day…
What are the World Nomad Games
The Nomad Games started in 2014 and take place every 2 years in different countries in the region.
It’s basically their version of the Olympics showcasing 43 different nomadic sports like wrestling, archery, and horse racing.
Over 3000 participants from over 100 countries will be attending and they are expecting 100,000 people attending the games each day.
This year the games will be taking place from Sep 2-6 in Cholpon Ata, a small resort town about 270km west of Bishkek on the northern shore of Issyk-Kul lake.
The opening ceremony, however, will be taking place right here in Bishkek.
A shuttle to the arena
The newly built Bishkek arena is on the outskirts of the city and, because of security concerns, the only way to get there was to board one of the hundreds of shuttle buses around the city.
The organizers setup 22 different designated pickup points around the city so we walked over to the nearest one this afternoon.
Despite the ceremony not taking place until 5pm, we were instructed to get to the shuttle buses for 2pm.
When we arrived at the pickup point there were already over 100 people waiting there.
It wasn’t a big deal as we had plenty of time and also you could see dozens of buses lined up around the blocks ready to take us there.
We ended up standing in line for a half hour and, thankfully, there was a group of Kyrgyzstan men in line right behind us doing chants and singing songs to entertain us.
To show you the Kyrgyz hospitality, we were originally lined up behind them but they waved us and other foreigners past their group to let us board first.
We boarded the bus at 2:30 and then sat and waited for a half hour as they loaded up other buses as well.
I believe they were loading a bunch of buses at one time and then releasing them every half hour so there’d be a group of buses heading to the arena together.
We felt very VIP as we made our way there passing by multiple police officers who were holding back traffic at every intersection we went through.
Arriving at Bishkek Arena
A half hour later we had arrived at the arena.
The arena is actually brand new as ground broke for it just two years ago and this event tonight would be the first official event here.
As you can imagine, security was pretty tight as many dignitaries would be attending like the presidents of Russia, China, Iran, and others.
The rules were basically nothing in your backpack.
No food, no drink, no gum, no special cameras or electronics, no cigarettes, and the list goes on.
When I bought our tickets a couple of weeks ago, they asked for our photo id and passport information and both were printed onto our tickets.
To enter the stadium we simply had to show our face to a scanner and the gate would open.
High tech – gotta love it.
I hadn’t had a chance to eat yet today so I was really looking forward to getting in there and seeing what world cuisines they would be offering.
Um, where’s all the food?
We entered the arena and you could tell it was brand new.
Tape was still in places, couches had been setup haphazardly in the lounge area and the concession stands were, well, how can I say this delicately?
Um, they were horrible.
In our section there were only two concession stands selling the exact same things with only one person working behind each.
The food being offered were chips, cookies, candy bars, and different pastries.
Oh, and they had cold mini hamburger sandwiches as well.
My dreams of trying true Kyrgyz foods and food from other cultures taking part in the games came crashing down in a huge heap of disappointment.
Yes, I know I’m in Central Asia and I know it’s different here than in Europe or North America but I just thought that since this was such a prestigious event bringing in tens of thousands of people from all over the world that it would have been different.
Anyway, I ended up getting a bag of chips and a few of the mini hamburgers which I peeled the buns off of.
Dinner of champions!
A musical preshow
We sat in our seats and an hour later, at 5pm, the announcers came on and welcomed us to the preshow.
Musical acts and dancers from here in Kyrgyzstan came on one after the other.
By the way, if you watch the videos I took of the performances please understand that the reason the stands were empty in the background was because that was where the athletes would be seated later.
After watching the musical acts for an hour, we were starting to think “well, surely this one has to be the last one, right?”
Well, 17 musical acts and almost 2 hours later, the preshow did, in fact, come to an end.
It was 6:50 and they announced the ceremony would be starting soon.
It wasn’t.
Parade of Nations
We all just assumed the official ceremony would start at 7pm but then we could see on the big screen dignitaries still arriving and being greeted by the Kyrgyzstan president.
Oh, okay, this was gonna take awhile.
Finally, at just before 8:30, a full hour and a half after the preshow ended, the lights dimmed.
First the flag was brought in and raised to the roof as the national anthem was played.
And then, it was time for what we were all here for, the introduction of all the countries and their athletes.
For 45 minutes the countries were brought in one by one.
The loudest cheers were for the neighboring countries.
It certainly was interesting to see Russia and Iran getting huge cheers.
And when they showed Putin on the big screen, he got one of the biggest cheers of the night.
The biggest cheer, of course, was when the host country’s delegation crossed the field at the end.
The atmosphere was electric and, this, was what it was all about.
Cultural Show
After a good half hour of speeches in Kyrgyz, the lights dimmed again, and a cultural show was unfolding in front of our eyes.
The half hour show showed different aspects of Nomadic life along with lots of dancing and choreography.
The climax was a group of hundreds of dancers in the middle of the field surrounded by three rings of horses galloping around them.
How on earth were they able to coordinate all those people and all those horses?
It was amazing, like, it literally brought a tear to my eye.
What a way to end the ceremony!
Hold up! It ain’t over!
After that epic finale of horses, we assumed that was the end but then a singer came out.
And then another.
And, well, you get the idea.
A half hour of more singing.
At 10:40 the singing ended and fireworks lit up the sky above us.
Well, a say above us but we couldn’t actually see the fireworks from inside the arena.
We sure heard the booming explosions and we could see the actual fireworks on the stadium screens.
Wow! Now, that’s how you end a ceremony!
Um, no, not quite yet…
Nope, we weren’t finished yet!
Sure, it had been an almost 6 hour show and, sure, we’d started at that bus stop almost 9 hours ago but the show continued.
By this point I felt like I was watching the Lord of the Rings with all the false finishes.
And the people started to rise out of the ground in the center of the field.
It was the musical group The Pussycat Dolls.
Okay, I can get behind this.
Yeah I was tired and hungry but, hey, who can turn down a little pop music, right?
The performed their hits for 20 minutes and then, finally, at just after 11pm the event ended.
We eventually made our way back to the hostel at 12:30am.
It had been a long day but, despite some little annoying things here and there, it had been an amazing experience and I’m so glad I got to take part in it.
Tomorrow, we leave bright and early for Bokonbayevo which is on the south side of Issyk-Kul lake.
We’ll be heading the long way around the lake to get to Cholpon Ata where we’ll be attending the games later in the week.
This is going to be an amazing week and I can’t wait to experience it.
