Baku: The lavish and impressive opening ceremony of the inaugural European Games cost 100 million manat (R608 crore approximately), revealed Azerbaijan Sports Minister Azad Rahimov on Saturday. No expense was spared -- pop diva Lady Gaga being the surprise headline attraction — by the organisers which saw it cost more than double that of the 2012 Olympic Games in London which had a budget of $42 million.

Whereas the London organisers deployed 10,000 performers, the Baku spectacular used 2000 and the former lasted four hours -- including a mock up of Queen Elizabeth II parachuting out of a helicopter with fiction’s most famous secret agent James Bond -- while the European Games show was half that time.