A group of dancers danced to festive Tibetan music before fanning out to form the Olympic rings here on Friday, about two hours before the opening of the Beijing Games.

Chinese ethnic dancing was the centerpiece of a feast of folk art performances before Beijing finally raises the curtain of the 29th Summer Games.

Drums and folk music resounded at the National Stadium, or the "Bird's Nest" in northern Beijing, as 28 folk ballads and dances were staged.

Performers dressed in traditional costumes featuring different Chinese localities and ethnic groups including Tibetans, Uygurs, Hui, Miao, Tujia, Yi, Miao, Mongolian, Tu and Qiang, took turns to march into the center of the stadium, staging lion dances, drum ballads, acrobatic dances, rolling lanterns and stilts dances, among other folk artforms.

"I'm not quite familiar with Chinese culture, and this is a good approach for people like me," said Charles Camenzuli, a freelancer from Malta. "I particularly like the Uygur dance -- the girls are beautiful in their festive costumes. Their performances are very touching, too."

Camenzuli, who's in Beijing to cover the Games for a local TV, said he also found the traditional stilts "interesting".

Flashlights kept flashing from the audience stand. Many foreign reporters excitedly applauded and waved arms from their desks to salute the performers.

The pre-opening performances lasted more than an hour and ended with a group of dancers holding two colorful dragons nearly 300 meters long each.

The weather in Beijing was still hot and stuffy on Friday, and most people were sweating in the roofless, unair-conditioned stadium.

The Bird's Nest has a seating capacity of 91,000.

To increase festivity at the opening, Games organizers have put a bag on every seat, which contains a fluorescent torch, a torchlight and a traditional Chinese toy drum which will be rattled to welcome worldwide athletes upon their parade into the stadium.