The Komsomol relied heavily on the infrastructure of the Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics for the festival venues, including the Luzhniki Olympic Complex and the Cosmos Hotel,[6] which accommodated 3,000 foreign participants.[7] The opening of the festival took place at a four hour parade and ceremony at Luzhniki stadium and was broadcast live on Soviet television. The festival was opened with a welcome speech from the newly-elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev: