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Sydney Opera House Celebrates 50th Birthday with Light Show, Free Tours

(FILE) The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with lights at the start of the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney on May 27, 2022. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)
(FILE) The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with lights at the start of the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney on May 27, 2022. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)
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Sydney Opera House Celebrates 50th Birthday with Light Show, Free Tours

(FILE) The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with lights at the start of the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney on May 27, 2022. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)
(FILE) The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with lights at the start of the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney on May 27, 2022. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)

Sydney Opera House celebrated its 50th birthday on Friday, with a laser show planned to illuminate the iconic building.
Officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973, the Opera House is widely regarded as one of the greatest architectural designs of the 20th century, with 10.9 million people visiting every year.
The building will be illuminated on Friday evening by a light show created by Australian audio-visual artist Robin Fox, before welcoming an expected 37,000 people on Saturday for free tours, its first open day in eight years.
"A symbol around the world and a national treasure turns 50," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Happy Birthday to an Australian icon."
As part of the 1956 Opera House international design competition, 233 designs were submitted by architects from around the world with Jorn Utzon from Denmark chosen as the winner.
Construction began in 1959 with the project meant to take four years to complete, but after Utzon resigned due to a change in government, design differences and a blow out in costs, the structure took 14 years to complete.
The Sydney Opera House was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2007.

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Kashmir’s Saffron Growers Experiment with Indoor Farming as Climate Pressures Mount

Kashmiri villagers collect stigma from saffron flowers in Pampore, 19 km (12 miles) south of Srinagar.(Reuters)
Kashmiri villagers collect stigma from saffron flowers in Pampore, 19 km (12 miles) south of Srinagar.(Reuters)
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Kashmir’s Saffron Growers Experiment with Indoor Farming as Climate Pressures Mount

Kashmiri villagers collect stigma from saffron flowers in Pampore, 19 km (12 miles) south of Srinagar.(Reuters)
Kashmiri villagers collect stigma from saffron flowers in Pampore, 19 km (12 miles) south of Srinagar.(Reuters)

Tucked in a valley beneath the snow-capped Himalayas of the Indian Kashmir region is the town of Pampore, famed for its farms that grow the world's most expensive spice - the red-hued saffron.

This is where most of saffron is farmed in India, the world's second-largest producer behind Iran of the spice, which costs up to 325,000 rupees ($3,800) a kg (2.2 pounds) because it is so labor-intensive to harvest.

Come October, the crocus plants begin to bloom, covering the fields with bright purple flowers from which strands of fragrant red saffron are picked by hand, to be used in foods such as paella, and in fragrances and cloth dyes.

"I am proud to cultivate this crop," said Nisar Ahmad Malik, as he gathered flowers from his ancestral field.

But, while Malik has stuck to traditional farming, citing the "rich color, fragrance and aroma" of his produce through the years, some agrarian experts have been experimenting with indoor cultivation of the crop as global warming fears increase.

About 90% of India's saffron is produced in Kashmir, of which a majority is grown in Pampore, but the small town is under threat of rapid urbanization, according to the Indian Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR).

Experts say rising temperatures and erratic rainfall pose a risk to saffron production, which has dropped from 8 metric tons in the financial year 2010-11 to 2.6 metric tons in 2023-24, the federal government told parliament in February, adding that efforts were being made to boost production.

One such program is a project to help grow the plant indoors in a controlled environment in tubes containing moisture and vital nutrients, which Dr. Bashir Ilahi at state-run Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences said has shown good results.

"Growing saffron in a controlled environment demonstrates temperature resistance and significantly reduces the risk of crop failure," said Ilahi, standing in his laboratory between stacks of crates containing tubes of the purple flower.

Ilahi and other local experts have been helping farmers with demonstrations on how to grow the crocus plant indoors.

"It is an amazing innovation," said Abdul Majeed, president of Kashmir's Saffron Growers Association, some of whose members, including Majeed, have been cultivating the crop indoors for a few years.

Manzoor Ahmad Mir, a saffron grower, urged more state support.

"The government should promote indoor saffron cultivation on a much larger scale as climate change is affecting the entire world, and Kashmir is no exception," Mir said.