The third Delphic Games, an international competition of culture and arts, have opened in Jeju.

The opening ceremony took place on Wednesday at the Jeju Halla Stadium.

The ceremony participants included Jeju Governor Kim Tae-hwan, Vice Culture Minister Kim Dae-gi, the International Delphic Council’s President Divina Bautista and Secretary-General Christian Kirsch, the event’s organizing committee chief Lee Jong-duck and lawmaker Ko Heung-kil who chairs the parliamentary committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting and Communications.

During the ceremony, South Korean actress Ko Du-sim who is a Jeju native, mixed the sacred water from Castalian Spring at Delphi, Greece and water from Jeju’s Mount Halla.

Performers also exhibited a Buddhist dance with cymbals, a crane dance, and a performance dubbed the “Festival of Gods.”

Some 15-hundred people from 54 countries will compete until next Tuesday under the theme of ”Tuning into Nature.”