Trelawny, hosting the opening ceremony, will also host four warm-up matches for the World Cup © Andrew Miller Enlarge

The World Cup opening ceremony to be held in Jamaica is set to showcase some spectacular effects with the organisers hiring two lighting consultants with impressive credentials to work alongside the local production team.

Though the organisers haven't revealed the names of the consultants they did say one of them has worked at the Olympic Games and the other worked at the American Super Bowl.

The ceremony is to be held at the Trelawny Stadium, which will also host four warm-up matches. All the players and officials of the 16 World Cup teams will attend the ceremony, for which a budget of US$ 2 million has been set aside and which will be televised across the world.

Martin Lewis, the event producer, said that he would advise people to buy tickets early as it was going to be a great show. "They [consultants] will be working with local suppliers, mostly local crew and the production team. It's a lot more to it than just the opening ceremony," Lewis told the Jamaica Gleaner.

Around 1500 performers are expected to be part of the ceremony though most of them will be Jamaicans. "The budget is small so we cannot afford to bring in a lot of bodies, neither to prepare nor to perform," said Lewis.

"The plan, therefore, is to have one overall theme representing the entire region, the theme will be "Caribbean Energy", and it will depict the common culture that binds the region together - the music, the dance, and the heritage of the people."