Expo 2000

Expo 2000 was a World's Fair held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday, June 1 to Tuesday, October 31, 2000. It was located on the Hanover fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. The fair was not a financial success.

The fair's masterplan was designed in a joint venture with Studio d'Arnaboldi / Cavadini, Locarno and AS&P (Albert Speer und Partner GmbH).

History

Background

On June 14, 1990, the international world's fair organization B.I.E. awarded Expo 2000 to Hannover, beating out Toronto by a 21 to 20 vote. In 1992, the architects Studio Arnaboldi/Cavadini of Locarno won an international design competition for the masterplan of the exhibition grounds. On June 12 of that same year, a survey conducted by the city council was made public showing only 51.5% of area residents supported hosting the expo.

Construction

On May 5, 1994, a new company was created by the government in Bonn, Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung und Durchführung der Weltausstellung EXPO 2000 in Hannover (EXPO 2000 Hanover GmbH). Headed by chairman Helmut Werner, the company was responsible for the construction and management of the fair.

Expo 2000 (song)

"Expo 2000" is a song by Kraftwerk. It was originally an a cappella jingle commissioned for the Hannover Expo 2000 world's fair in Germany, which was subsequently developed into longer pieces with music and additional lyrics.

The Expo 2000 single was released on CD and twelve-inch vinyl in December 1999 by EMI in Germany and in January 2000 elsewhere in Europe. It reached #27 in the UK singles chart in March 2000.

It was the group's first commercial recording of new, original music since the release of the 1986 album Electric Café.

In November 2000, a collection of remixes was released, titled Expo Remix, featuring contributions from various producers, including long-term collaborator François Kevorkian, Orbital, and members of the Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance.

Both releases were combined and issued on one CD by Astralwerks Records in the US and Canada in October 2001.

Jingle

The original Expo theme was a typically Kraftwerk vocoder-voice singing the phrase "Expo 2000" in six languages: German, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Japanese. In total, the piece lasted thirty seconds. This "Expo-Jingle" was only available for download from the Expo 2000 website for a limited period and on the limited edition official Expo 2000 souvenir CD.