Crowds gather for maiden Earth Hour in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan joined the world for Earth Hour this year for the first time with crowds coming together for a host of events across the country, including the city of Baku, where people gathered for an Earth Hour event to switch off the symbol of the national capital - the Maiden Tower.

While the main event took place in Baku, through the use of modern broadcasting technologies event organisers were able to engage participation of other cities in Azerbaijan including Sabirabad and Lahij who held Earth Hour events at various places of significance, showing how quickly Azerbaijanis have taken to Earth Hour’s global celebration of the planet.

“At first all our actions related to Earth Hour Azerbaijan started at 5pm at IRELI Youth Center. We couldn’t believe it when after around 250 youngsters came to participate. All process was broadcast live on IRELI’s internet TV,” said Earth Hour Azerbaijan manager, Rauf Mardiyev.

After the opening ceremony and introduction about Earth Hour, an hour of organized ecological training took place around the question “Why we should switch the light off?”, followed by one of the most interesting elements of the event; City Game, where 3 different teams took part in activities through the streets of Baku leading them to the final destination - Maiden Tower.

Following an opening ceremony speech from Mardiyev, the crowd stood for a minute’s silence to pay homage to the victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

At 8:29pm local time, an excited crowd in front of Maiden Tower counted down to Earth Hour followed by an event program of competitions and music that created a festive atmosphere in what was a joyous inaugural Earth Hour for Azerbaijan.

“That was indescribably amazing to see the happy faces all around and the reiterated sayings like: ‘We also did it!’,” said Mardiyev.

“We believe that we made a good start in Earth Hour campaign and will do our best for upcoming events to be more successful,” he added.

For more information about Earth Hour Azerbaijan contact:
Rauf Mardiyev
Earth Hour Azerbaijan Manager
IRELI Public Union
E: r.mardiyev@ireli.az