A slow-moving immersive natural encounter at Al Wasl Plaza.

Fireflies

Expressions Projection Show at Al Wasl : The Sea

Inside Expo_New

Architecture II: Al Wasl Plaza

Exhibitor logo

EXHIBITOR Magazine's World Expo Awards

EXHIBITOR Magazine Announces World Expo Award Winners

Al Wasl Plaza

Al Wasl 

Notice the Expo logo at the centre of Al Wasl Plaza's oculus.

Al Wasl Dome 3

Experience a towering structure under which the Leaning Tower of Pisa could fit.

Al Wasl 4

Al Wasl Plaza Images

The Opening Ceremony: A Story of Hope

Expo 2020 Dubai, the first Expo in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region in the 170 years of World Expo history, opened with a celebration of global togetherness and optimism. Spectacular storytelling, performances, fireworks, and immersive projections on the dome of Al Wasl, the heart of Expo 2020, all told a story of collaboration and hope for the future, echoing Expo 2020 Dubai's theme of "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future". Global artists joining in the celebration included Andrea Bocelli, Ellie Goulding, Lang Lang and Mohammed Abdu.

Description 

General view of Al Wasl Plaza 

The first World Expo in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, Expo 2020 opened with a celebration of global connection and hope for the future.

Jaw-dropping immersive projections beginning with the fiery birth of our planet.

A celebration of the majesty of nature, both underwater and on land.

Incredible local and international performers.

Image Gallery

Expo 2020 Dubai Opening Ceremony

Long ago, travellers referred to Dubai as Al Wasl, or “the connection” – a name that reflects the area’s heritage as a meeting point. This spirit of coming together takes shape in Al Wasl Plaza, Expo 2020’s spectacular centrepiece and gathering ground for celebration and wonder. 

Situated at the meeting point of Expo’s three thematic districts, Al Wasl Plaza's dome is tall enough to fit the Leaning Tower of Pisa beneath it. By night, she transforms into a 360-degree projection screen, blanketed by more than 250 state-of-the-art projectors. Al Wasl Plaza is a hub for visitors and the vibrant heart of our Expo.

UAE flag

Daily performances, national day ceremonies and more

Al Wasl Dome Projections

Immersive 360-degree domed projection screen

Al Wasl exterior

Lush garden spaces for relaxation and connection

Al Wasl features

Al Wasl Logo-01

Al Wasl Plaza 360

Al Wasl Plaza is 130 metres in diameter and more than 67 metres tall. Delicate-looking despite its titanic scale, her pattern is inspired by our Expo's logo, which is fully visible at the oculus.

and magical

Extraordinary

The life force of the Expo 2020 site, Al Wasl Plaza proudly carries the old name of Dubai.

The beating heart of Expo 2020

A series of immersive 360° videos of Al Wasl's projection shows that put you centre stage for each stunning performance. 

DUBAI, 12 October 2021. Underwater Harmony performance at Al Wasl, Expo 2020 Dubai. (Photo by Christopher Pike/Expo 2020 Dubai)


Underwater Harmony performance at Al Wasl

Al Wasl Plaza 360° Immersive Experiences

The Beating Heart of Expo 2020

The Beating Heart of Expo

The islands of São Tomé and Príncipe are home to an extraordinary biodiversity. Its forests and ocean support unique species that live exclusively on these islands and people communities as well. The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe is aware of the urgency to protect its unique ecosystems and the need to find sustainable solutions (such as those that involve raw and processed food, medicines, timber and non-wood forest products) to support both people and biodiversity. The commitment of this country to protect one of the last biodiversity-rich places in the world is key and in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. This conference will show some examples of projects developed in the country, such as the sustainable use of agroforestry local products to combat food safety while reducing impact of preserved forests, and the conservation of endangered species through the involvement of people.

Dehydrated Fruits and Olive Oils

Sao Tome and Principe

A conference showcasing some of the projects developed in São Tomé and Príncipe to preserve the country's extraordinary biodiversity.

Inside Expo: Sustainability I: The World’s Oldest Innovator

Inside Expo: Sustainability II: Harnessing the Sun

The Powerhouse Pavilions

Terra - The Sustainability Pavilion - Audio Guide

Terra

stamp Terra

Terra - Carousel

At Expo 2020, sustainability is an urgent, attainable reality, and Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion is the proof. Both immersive exhibition space and exemplar of environmental self-sufficiency, Terra is a pioneering piece of architecture that pushes the limits of renewable design.

The pavilion’s 130-metre-wide solar canopy – so vast that you could park 10 city buses head-to-tail atop it – converts sunshine into electricity for the exhibits below. Artfully funnelled natural light and local plant species, together with technologies that can reduce water consumption by 75 per cent, show the way to a sustainable future.


Inspiring experiential journey through our shared sustainable future

Two immersive paths to choose from: beneath a forest and beneath an ocean

LEED Platinum environmental features, including solar power and water recycling

Terra 

terra

Videos

Terra is a super-sized marvel of forward-thinking design. The pavilion’s technology generates enough energy in a year to power a Nissan Leaf to drive halfway to Mars, while another system captures moisture from the air you breathe and turns it into drinkable water. Enter and take a fantastical journey through the wonders of nature, humanity’s challenges and the promise of our shared future. 


terra 

of harmonious living

A model

The Sustainability Pavilion

Terra is home to five thought-provoking art installations from artists around the world, with each piece demonstrating a response to the issue of sustainability.

Terra Art Installations

Young visitors can explore a fantastical world inspired by Terra's very own octopus, Octavia.

Octavia's Playground

Timelapse of Terra 

São Tomé and Príncipe: Dehydrated Fruits and Olive Oils

Come and see the remarkable H2O Orchestra Concert. With instruments made of reused materials related to water, such as bottles, drums, hoses, pipes and funnels, to name a few, the H2O Orchestra seeks to raise awareness about water care in a novel way.

H2O Sounds of Water Orchestra

Come and see the remarkable H2O Orchestra Concert. With instruments made of reused materials related to water, such as bottles, drums, hoses, pipes and funnels, to name a few.

The Dubai Millennium Amphitheatre is a performance space hosting cultural performances and live music for seated crowds, located in Al Forsan Park. The venue’s design features a model of two Ghaf trees that intertwine above the centre of the stage. 

Dubai Millennium Amphitheatre

Paraguay 4

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Paraguay Image Gallery

One of this South American nation’s claims to fame is indeed huge: Paraguay is home to one of the world's largest dams, the Itaipú Hydroelectric Project. Itaipú’s generators supply nearly 80 per cent of Paraguay's electricity and 25 per cent of Brazil’s electricity needs. The Paraguay Pavilion details the strategic potential of water in the country when it comes to renewable energy as well as how Paraguay connects to the world via its rivers and food production. The pavilion also highlights its cultural riches, sustainable development, and fresh business opportunities.


Paraguay

Paraguay 1

Paraguay Pavilion

Paraguay: H2O Sounds of Water Orchestra

Ever played a game of Jenga and watched the whole structure collapse as your remove one peg? This applies to strong and unexplored links among all species, including our own, and the loss of even one of them impacting many in unexpected ways. 

Nature’s complex web make it possible for all of us to live on earth. As we encroach more on our natural habitats, we are actually growing more disconnected from nature. Because of human activity, close to one million animal and plant species could soon go extinct, leading to a chain of unpredictable consequences. These intrusions are affecting entire communities at an unprecedented scale and frequency, from wildfires to global pandemics and insect invasions. As we continue to weigh this dilemma, it is urgent we find solutions to protect our ecosystems and support our long-term ability to thrive not just alongside nature, but also as part of it. 


Finding Our Place in Nature's Complex Web

World Majlis | Nature’s Game of Jenga: Getting Creative to Fight Biodiversity Loss

Held in collaboration with Switzerland, this World Majlis examines the complexity and interconnectedness of our ecosystems and explores innovative strategies for sustaining biodiversity.

Session programme - Nature's Game of Jenga

Learnings and insights from the World Majlis conversations on Climate and Biodiversity

World Majlis: Insights from Climate & Biodiversity Week

Insight Report from Climate and Biodiversity Week

Nature's Game of Jenga - Documents

World Majlis - Nature

Climate and Biodiversity Week to spur the world into action to protect our planet

We stand at the brink of a crucial moment in time - a moment in which we must take decisive collective action to protect our planet, and the life it sustains, for future generations. It is an opportunity for us to take our place in history as the generation that stepped up to halt climate change, and transform human activity to operate within Earth's planetary boundaries. 

Expo 2020 Dubai's Climate & Biodiversity Week convenes government decision-makers, business leaders, youth advocates and our millions of visitors to address the greatest challenge of our time and generate solutions critical to the future of our civilisation and the health of our planet. 

What's your Promise to our Planet?

Climate and Biodiversity

How do we work together to better manage climate change and protect biodiversity? 

Climate & Biodiversity Week Programme

Natural Resource and Biodiversity Conservation

Climate & Biodiversity Week

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stamp Switzerland

Switzerland Gallery

The magnificent, snow-capped Swiss Alps are renowned for their stunning natural majesty. Now, at Expo 2020, you can have your own breathtaking alpine experience – no climbing boots or ice axe required. The Switzerland Pavilion offers a simulated hike through the country’s mountains, traversing a dense sea of fog. After cresting the spectacular summit, you’ll reach an enchanting city of opportunities where you can explore Swiss innovation, take in traditional performances and sample mouth-watering Swiss chocolate.

  Immersive simulated hike amid the Swiss Alps

High-tech interactive exhibits exploring Swiss innovation

Rooftop terrace bar, and delicious Swiss chocolates at the Sprüngli Café

Switzerland Features

Switzerland

The Switzerland Pavilion's bold, funnel-shaped mirror façade reflects the ground in front of the pavilion: a massive red carpet decorated with a white Swiss cross. The polygonal mirror panels converge at a  doorway in the lower left of the building, crafted from scaffolding and textiles inspired by Bedouin tents. 

in red 

Mirror

Switzerland Pavilion

Dr. Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri is the Secretary General of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD), the largest environmental regulator in the Middle East, responsible for protecting and preserving natural 
resources and promoting sustainable development in the emirate. She holds a PhD degree in Wildlife Conservation and Protection from the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom, the first Emirati woman to earn the accolade. She has overseen the implementation of innovative programs on biodiversity, protected areas, threatened species and fisheries, including national and global species reintroduction programs.
Among her wide-ranging involvement in national and international committees and organisations working in environmental protection, Dr. Shaikha serves as the Chair of the IUCN UAE National Committee.

2. Her Excellency Dr. Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri

Secretary General of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD)

H.E. Dr. Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri

Sir Tim Smit is best known for his achievements in Cornwall. He ‘discovered’ and then restored ‘The Lost Gardens of Heligan’ with John Nelson, which is now one of the UK’s best loved gardens having been named ‘Garden of the Year’ by BBC Countryfile Awards (Mar 2018). Tim’s book ‘The Lost Gardens of Heligan’ won Book of the Year in 1997.

Tim is Executive Vice-Chair and Co-founder of the multi award-winning Eden Project in Cornwall. Since its opening in 2001, over 22 million people have come to see a once sterile pit, turned into a cradle of life containing world-class horticulture and startling architecture symbolic of human endeavour. Tim is also Executive Co-Chair for Eden Project International which aims to have an Eden Project on every habited continent by 2025.

Sir Tim Smit -Eden Project - Head Shot by Chaz Oldham - Colour

Executive Chair and Founding Director, Eden Project, United Kingdom

Sir Tim Smit

Alexandre Roulin is a full professor of biology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and an evolutionary biologist interested in the evolution of life. His atypical career path began with an apprenticeship of civil engineering, followed by night school to get his “maturity degree” before attending university. His main scientific interests are the adaptive function of melanin-based coloration and negotiation processes taking place in animal societies using the barn owl as a model organism. His research is now expanding into other fields such as conservation psychology and social psychology.

4. Professor Alexandre Roulin

Head of the Owl for Peace Initiative, University of Lausanne

Professor Alexandre Roulin

Dr. Emiliano Esterci Ramalho is the Technical-Scientific Director of the Mamirauá Institute, coordinator of Project Providence, and leader of the Amazon Field Ecology and Conservation Research Group. He was a CAPES/Fulbright scholar at the University of Florida, where he earned a Ph.D. in the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. He is a founding member of the Alliance for the Conservation of the Jaguar and a member of the Instituto Pró-Carnívoros. He dedicated the last 16 years of his career to jaguar conservation in the Amazonian Flooded Forests with the aim of reducing the number of jaguars killed by hunters and improving the quality of people who live with the species. He is currently responsible for the largest and oldest jaguar research and conservation program in the Brazilian Amazon.

5. Dr Emiliano Esterci Ramalho, PhD

Technical and Scientific Director, Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute, Brazil

Dr. Emiliano Esterci Ramalho, PhD

Up to September 2021, Gerrard Albert has been the Chair of Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui, the post-settlement governance body for Whanganui Iwi (Iwi means a Māori tribal grouping) established at settlement of the tribe’s claim with the New Zealand Government in 2014. As a result of the claim settlement, New Zealand accorded legal personhood to the Whanganui River, flipping the existing paradigm by placing the River as the focus of human interaction in line with the indigenous value set of Whanganui Iwi, called Tupua Te Kawa, now shared with the nation. Since then, other nations have followed suit in an effort to protect the environment by according to values, or legal rights to natural resources.

6. Gerrard Albert.jpeg

Chair of Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui, Whanganui Iwi, New Zealand

Gerrard Albert

Dr. Lalasia Bialic-Murphy is a Lead Scientist in the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich. Lalasia's research bridges population and community ecology, with an emphasis on comparative demography. A central theme of her work is identifying the environmental factors and phylogenetic relationships that shape population and community dynamics. Her work ranges from conducting manipulative field experiments to identify the drivers of elevated extinction risk, to leveraging global demographic datasets to characterize the impacts of global change on forest trees. Lalasia received her Ph.D. in 2017 at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and did a postdoc at the University of Tennessee and the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis Center.

Lalasia Bialic-Murphy

Lead Scientist, Crowther Lab ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Dr. Lalasia Bialic-Murphy

Professor Dr. Thomas Crowther is a professor in the department of Global Ecosystem Ecology at ETH Zurich, where he founded Crowther Lab, an interdisciplinary group of scientists studying global ecosystems and generating knowledge to protect biodiversity and address climate change, deepening public and scientific understanding of the role of nature-based solutions. 

In 2021, Crowther Lab launched Restor, an independent not-for-profit open data platform that provides transparency and connectivity to conservation and restoration efforts across the globe. Crowther has been named a WEF Young Global Leader for his work and serves on the advisory council of WEF’s Trillion Trees initiative (1T.org). He also serves as co-chair of the advisory board of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, along with Lucy Mulenkei.


Tom Crowther Headshot nature

Ecologist, Professor and Founder of Crowther Lab, ETH Zurich 

Professor Thomas Crowther

10. Pablo Fajardo

Pablo Fajardo

9. Miha Hrovat

Miha Hrovat

Explore a series of exciting conversations inspired by the theme of Expo 2020 Dubai. The World Majlis is a vibrant forum where diverse points of views are shared on important topics of our time. Each conversation brings together globally recognised thought-leaders who are invited for their exceptional contributions to the theme and their unique perspective on the topic. In each Majlis, students and members of the public are also welcome to contribute and engage.

World Majlis

Conversations on complex issues that bring together thought leaders, visionaries and changemakers.

World Expos have always been meeting places for people across cultures and geographies; an opportunity to come together and celebrate human ingenuity and forge meaningful human connections. As the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, and with the participation of more than 192 countries, Expo 2020 Dubai looks to take this legacy even further. The Build Bridges track of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Programme for People and Planet features a tapestry of event series and experiences that celebrate our common humanity and the vital connections that can help us prosper together as a worldwide community.