In 2022 the 19th @FINA World Aquatics Championships took place in Budapest between 18th June and 3rd July. Our agency, FLIP UNIT Production participated in organizing the event, so we could say that we took part in a few-week long adventure.
Also, the biggest honor and the most positive feedback the whole event-management team could have ever gotten is a letter from the president of FINA, @Hussein al-Mussalam himself, saying that this year’s event has been the best FINA championship so far in the history of the organization.
If you have participated in the championship as a spectator at any event then you probably noticed that even the breaks between finals weren’t silent either, and the organizing team was prepared and made sure that the viewers were not bored, not even for a second. The task of keeping the audience engaged and entertained was assigned to the Fan TV crew of an agency called Sport-Events, who made the breaks enjoyable and full of fun with different activities and performances.
The MCs or hosts alongside of announcing every performance in super creative ways, they engaged in interesting conversations with members of the audience, they danced together with the viewers for the dance cams and they were involved in every activity and thanks to this the auditorium was always full of positive and energetic vibes. And the viewers had all sorts of different tasks to do: karaoke, dancing or trying to replicate the face of an emoji while the chosen viewer could see themselves on a huge screen. There were dance battles, playing the air guitar, and the audience of water polo even witnessed an actual proposal in the last couple days (of course she said YES, and there were a lot of happy tears). And if this wasn’t enough - but even these activities kept the viewers on the edge of their seats at all times as well - there were all sorts of shows and performances between finals. This is where OUR agency came into play.
Despite the fact that there were a variety of performances such as singers, freestyle rappers, Michael Jackson impersonators, beatboxers or even samba dancers, for us, the extreme sport shows were the most exciting performances. The viewers could see these shows in different locations and even multiple times:
- BMX Flatland show
- Freestyle football show
- LED Acrobats show
- Cheerleader show
- LED Light show
- Parkour show
- Cyrwheel show
- Break dance show
- Hulahoop show
The energetic, youthful and trendy BMX Flatland show was a great fit for artistic swimming, water polo and even diving. The viewers were highly amazed by the tricks and spins with the bike, since most of us only use bicycles in “traditional” ways.
In Duna Arena, during the swimming finals, our parkour team performed an extremely thrilling show, during which they tested the diving towers pretty nicely and with insane flips, jumps and powerful tricks they took the viewers’ breath away. And since it was an aquatic championship they “dived into” the full experience…
And here we have the full video of the parkour show:
Extreme sport performances such as the LED Acrobats show, LED Light show, hulahoop or cyrwheel show succesfully impressed the audience, since these performances are something that one doesn’t usually come across during their everyday lives and most people haven’t even heard of some of these extreme sports. This way entertainment was guaranteed and we even managed to offer a great experience and lifelong memories to the viewers between the finals.
Thanks to the professional event-management crew everything went smoothly behind the scenes as well, and with the help of the flexibility of the Fan TV crew and our professional athletes we managed to deal with every minor inconvenience without any problems. Our athletes performed 20 times in total in the span of 2 weeks, and they gave 100% all 20 times without any mistakes. Our shows proved to be pretty popular, since for example our BMX rider was surrounded after every performance and people were asking him questions about how long he has been practicing this sport, and all the competitions where he won prizes multiple times. The foreign diving coaches found the warm up of the cheerleaders highly amusing, and couldn’t wait to see the show go live.
And meanwhile in the background, there was the truly huge hit and exclusive show being prepared, in which our athletes also participated in - the FINA VIP ceremony which took place in the Museum of Fine Arts, in Budapest. This was a tailor-made supershow, that was basically cloned 3 times and performed in 3 different rooms at the same time, involving 30 artists and athletes, with a unique choreography, music, costumes and made even more interesting with different props. Each team consisted of professional cheerleaders, rhythmic gymnasts and dancers (selected from the bests of the country) led by the most known choreographer of Hungary, who created a piece inspired by ancient statues, with a modern twist to fit the vibe and the environment of the historic building, which is a masterpiece in and of itself. The guests were none other than the winners of the FINA championship, and the most important politicians and businessmen of the country. This VIP ceremony truly topped off the job of the FLIP UNIT Prod. at the 19th FINA World Championship.
This cooperation was a great experience for all of us personally and professionally as well, since we were able to show again that our extreme sport shows are a great choice for the most elite events as well, and with years of experience and true professionalism we can provide high quality services and performances on any world class event.