The Ocean Live Park opens on Saturday in the port of Alicante, Spain, from where The Ocean Race will start. The most extraordinary and toughest round-the-world regatta will, for the first time in its fifty-year history, have its “Grand Finale” in Genoa, Italy. Thanks to this meaningful association alongside The Ocean Race, the capital of Liguria is increasingly confirmed as the world capital of sailing and boating. The 150-square-metre Genoa Pavilion (Pavilion di Genova) will be inaugurated in the Ocean Live Park in Alicante. Visitors will be able to explore the beauties of the city of Genoa and Liguria while companies will be able to develop new business opportunities with enterprises from all over the world. It is a unique opportunity as Genoa will be the only city to enjoy this level of visibility along the entire route. After Alicante, the yachts will call at Cape Town (7-26 February), Itajaí (1-23 April), Newport (10-21 May), Aarhus (30 May-8 June), and The Hague (11-15 June). In addition to The Ocean Race, Genoa is a leader in promoting sustainability and the protection of the seas. Thanks to the “Genoa Process” the first draft of the Charter of Ocean Rights will be written and presented to the UN after the Grand Finale next June. From 7 to 15 January, the Ocean Live Park in Alicante will offer events for adults and children in an area covering 50,000 square metres, including concerts, entertainment, workshops, sailing tests and an area dedicated to gaming and e-sports.
The Opening Ceremony is set for 12 January at 20:00 and will be followed by a drone show. The public will be able to visit The Ocean Race Museum to see the history of the race. There will also be the Race Boat Experience where the public can get a taste of life on board. The Genoa Pavilion will be in full view, just behind the race boats (pavilion 17). A LED wall in front of the Pavilion will show the beauties of Genoa, Liguria and Italy. QR codes provide further information. The walls of the Pavilion will “tell the story” of the territory through iconic images: the Lanterna (Genoa’s historic lighthouse), the ancient shops and the typical “carruggi” (narrow lanes), the Cinque Terre, and pesto – as well as ice cream and coffee. In short, an extraordinary showcase for Genoa and Italy in general.
The race villages saw 2.5 million visitors during the previous edition. The Pavilion will house the ETT setup, a truly immersive experience that will effectively promote Genoa and Liguria using recognisable views. Continuous full-wall multi-projections of spectacular videos will connect visitors with the content. The chronicle will follow the race route around the world, showing the race legs up to the arrival in Genoa for the Grand Finale. Storytelling continues with a tourist promotion of Genoa through spectacular views of the most remarkable glimpses of the city, the lanes, the historic shops and the Palazzi dei Rolli. A video shows how pesto is prepared in a mortar. There are drone flights over urban settings, the forts and local landscapes, outdoor sports activities and the Aquarium. To finish off, a glance into the near future with a video of design previews of the new Waterfront di Levante (East Waterfront).
Some “Virtual Reality” viewers will be at the disposal of visitors so that they may explore the iconic areas of the Old Town, with its squares and buildings that include Palazzo San Giorgio. The Genoa Pavilion will also host a special edition of the World Pesto Championship in which around ten participants, after seeing a demo of the original recipe, will compete to make the best pesto.
There will be numerous events and meetings. On Wednesday 11 January, the University of Genoa will present its excellent research work relative to the sea and sustainability. There will be a presentation of the strategic project for the European Universities of the future Ulysseus, the Centro del Mare and a selection of research and technology transfer activities on topics related to the sea and sustainability. On Thursday 12 January, the Municipality of Genoa, under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Madrid, in collaboration with the Honorary Consulate of Alicante, will promote a meeting on the history, traditions and culture that unite The Ocean Race departure and arrival ports. The story of the Genoese coral harvester community will be retraced. Starting from Pegli, a small seaside town on the Ligurian coast, they arrived in the sixteenth century on Tabarca, an island in Tunisia, where they remained for almost three centuries. Pierangelo Campodonico, Director of the Genoa Sea Museum, will explain how the Genoese then arrived in Nueva Tabarca, an island off Alicante. Friday 13 January will be a special day set aside for “Made in Italy”. In collaboration with ICE, the Municipality of Genoa is promoting meetings dedicated to inventiveness, entrepreneurship and tourism – with one eye at all times on sustainability – sport and the blue economy. The morning opens with a holistic presentation of “Genoa, the place to be”, showing the Ligurian capital’s qualities as an ideal place to live, study, work, invest and tour. It illustrates the Administration’s 10-goal strategy to make it a sustainable city from every point of view, in line with the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda. Companies, most of them Genoese, will exhibit some of their projects, either implemented or under construction, in the Ligurian area and sea (Aeronike, ETT, Northern Light, Oceanhis, Relog3P, Skylab Studios, STAM). A special space is provided for those entities that continuously engage in sustainability and the not-for-profit defence of the sea (CIMA Foundation, Biodesign Foundation and the Coastguards). Following a light lunch featuring Ligurian specialities, Spanish operators and travel agents will see a presentation of Liguria as an ideal destination for all types of tourism, especially outdoors, sports and sustainability, organised by Agenzia InLiguria in collaboration with ENIT. At the end of the day, the Istituto Idrografico della Marina (Naval Hydrographic Institute) will illustrate its activities to mark the 150th anniversary of its foundation. Then follows a presentation of the Genova Global Goals Award competition, promoted by the Municipality of Genoa to reward the inventiveness of companies, startups, institutions, associations and students in the creation or implementation of projects in line with the 17 sustainable development objectives. On Saturday 14 January, culture takes centre stage thanks to the event “Discovering Genoa: Culture, Art and Tradition as an engine of city transformation”. A day dedicated to the presentation of the historical, artistic and cultural heritage of Genoa, a city with a glorious past, rich in art and tradition, but with an eye constantly open to the future and new cultural horizons. Genoa will be revealed by the example of its cultural excellences: the magnificent Palazzi dei Rolli, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and their enrichment during events on Rolli Days; the Paganini Prize which returns in 2023, one of the world’s most prestigious competitions for young musicians dedicated to the figure of the great Genoese violinist; the connection between Genoa and Jeans, represented by the extraordinary Teli della Passione, the Passion of Christ on linen cloths, kept in the Diocesan Museum; the relationship between Genoa, the sea and its immense tangible and intangible culture on show at the Galata Museo del Mare (Galata Sea Museum). There will be time in the afternoon for the World Pesto Championship, with its historic founder Roberto Panizza, and also for the preview of the “AOR Team Genova” crew, the VO65 boat with which Genoa will take part in The Ocean Race Sprint. Another source of pride for Genoa and another extraordinary opportunity to promote the city and its excellence. The race will start on Sunday at 14:00 when the VO65s set sail. The IMOCA 60 will start at 16:00. Genoa will go around the world alongside The Ocean Race and the world will arrive in Genoa for the “Grand Finale”, from 24 June to 2 July, on the new East Waterfront.