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DJ David Guetta pumps up the music at AIDAnova naming

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AIDAnova in the spotlight at Papenburg naming ceremony
AIDA Cruises named its latest ship AIDAnova on Friday evening at a sold-out AIDA Open Air event at Meyer Werft in Papenburg, attended by 25,000 spectators.

The highlight of the evening was a solo headline show by French DJ David Guetta.

‘AIDAnova’s naming ceremony was a special event in a special place: We are delighted that we were able to stage the AIDA Open Air in Papenburg at the Meyer Werft shipyard, so that we could share our enthusiasm about our new ship with so many people,’ said AIDA president Felix Eichhorn.

AIDAnova was imposingly illuminated with lighting and laser effects in front of the shipyard hall in Papenburg, and an impressive laser show brought the ship to life.

Strobes, floodlights and spotlights makes ship shine

The 20 multicolored laser projectors, over 300 strobes and more than 100 floodlights and spotlights made the ship glitter and shine. Two aqua acrobats ascended with their luminous flyboards to a height of 20 meters, gliding across the surface of the water, and creating fountains in the air with their stunts.

Another novelty at the naming ceremony was the naming by the Mirza family with mother Sonja citing the blessing before hitting a buzzer to send the champagne bottle shattering against the bow.

A laser wave effect brought a smile to the AIDAnova lips, and made the eye wink. After that, fireworks lit up the sky above AIDAnova before the evening’s highlight concert started.

At the end of September AIDAnova will make a first short trip, setting sail for Eemshaven in the Netherlands for final fit-out and sea trials.

AIDA will take over the new ship from the Meyer Werft shipyard on November 15, 2018, in Bremerhaven.

On that day, the first guests will also be arriving. The ship will sail a series of pre-naming itineraries from Hamburg before heading to the Canary Islands and Madeira for an inaugural season from mid-December 2018.

AIDAnova is the world’s first LNG powered cruise ship. Two further AIDA ships of this new generation will be built by 2023 - also at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg.