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Lotus F1® Team driver Kimi Räikkönen stares down danger as he shares the halfpipe with champion skateboarder Rune Glifberg at burn Yard™ Live in Budapest

Budapest, Saturday July 27, 2013 Lotus F1® Team driver Kimi Räikkönen faced a collision with creativity at burn Yard Live last night. The ‘Iceman’ walked over a giant ‘skate-able’ sculpture, created by world-renowned artist Gerry Judah, as Rune Glifberg and a crew of champion skateboarders swarmed around him. The ‘Iceman’ and ‘The Great Dane’ exchanged  gifts as a symbolic gesture of creative collaboration, watched by a crowd of 2,000 revellers to mark the opening of the first ever burn Yard Live.

Kimi Räikkönen was gifted with a celebratory skateboard by champion skateboarder Rune Glifberg as part of a creative exchange. The board was emblazoned with Glifberg’s name and, in return, the Lotus F1® Team driver entrusted the champion skateboarder with his driving helmet. The two men are members of the burn Collective, collaborating across artistic mediums to find common ground and experiment with new forms of creativity.

burn Yard™ is a new global program from burn, the leading energy drink from The Coca-Cola Company, designed to champion creativity. The burn Yard™ program aims to nurture and inspire creative talent and provide a platform to showcase groundbreaking ideas to the world and inspire everyday creativity in everyone.

Throughout burn Yard™ Live a crew of burn Residency DJs and electronic dance music legends from around the world kept the thousand-strong crowd on their feet, culminating in a headline appearance from Avicii. The international DJ dropped a brand new track, Speed (burn & Lotus F1® Team Mix) which was inspired by a recent visit to Enstone, the home of Lotus F1® Team. Residency DJs Yamoto, from Japan, and Italian duo Fire Flowerz along with Denmark’s Rune RK and local Hungarian dance act Metha b2b Mira each took a turn at the decks as the event stretched into the early hours.

Prinz M. Pinakatt, Global Director Sports & Entertainment Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company said, “We always wanted our sponsorship of F1® to defy expectations and bring about a true collision of creativity amongst artists from completely different backgrounds. Seeing Kimi and Rune up on that sculpture felt like a real celebration of all the work that has gone into the burn Yard program and, with so many artists coming together from all over the world, this has been a truly unique evening.”  

burn Yard™ Live, in Budapest, was the first in a series of public events where people can live the fusion of music, art and sports. Throughout the year, burn has produced an inspirational video documentary to tell the story of burn Yard™. This will demonstrate how the Collective has been working together to produce innovative creative projects. The challenges and triumphs of their collaborations will be told through this inspirational documentary.

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Notes to Editors

About the Collective

Kimi Räikkönen
Kimi Räikkönen burst onto the Formula 1 scene in 2001 and was quickly recognised as a star for the future. After finishing as runner-up in the Drivers’ Championship to Michael Schumacher in 2003 and again to Fernando Alonso in 2005, he finally took the title in 2007 at the very last race of the year. After a two year hiatus from the sport in 2010/2011, Kimi announced his return to Formula 1 with Lotus F1 Team for the 2012 season and instantly demonstrated the skill and technique which have seen him rated as one of the most natural talents of a generation; seven podium finishes – including victory at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – seeing him clinch P3 in the Drivers’ Championship during his comeback year. Picking up where he left in 2012, the Iceman currently occupies P3 in the Driver’s Championship having taken four podiums from the opening five races in 2013; including an emphatic victory at the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

Rune Glifberg
Universally recognized as one of the true legends of the sport and one of the most stylish and progressive skaters on the planet, Danish skater Rune Glifberg brought his skills and experience to burn’s new skate program, as team founder and mentor. “Adding burn to my list of sponsors is an honor and a privilege. It opens up new doors and opportunities for my career, and I couldn’t be happier with my decision to join the burn skateboard team.”- Rune Glifberg

About burn
BURN® energy drink is a category leader in the global energy drink explosion. The red formula is a symbol of active fire that provides drinkers with the energy needed to leave their original vision on the world. Dismantling category norms, consumers embody a live-out-loud mentality, without fear of boundaries created by society. BURN is a brand of The Coca-Cola Company. BURN is available in over 80 countries worldwide.

About The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world's largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands.  Led by Coca-Cola, the world's most valuable brand, our Company's portfolio features 15 billion-dollar brands including Diet Coke®, Fanta®, Sprite®, Coca-Cola® Zero™, vitaminwater®, Powerade®, Minute Maid®, Simply™, Georgia™ and Del Valle®. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juices and juice drinks.  Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy our beverages at a rate of 1.8 billion servings a day.  With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint, support active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for our associates, and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate.  Together with our bottling partners, we rank among the world's top 10 private employers with more than 700,000 system associates.  For more information, visit www.coca-colacompany.com, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/CocaColaCo or visit our blog at www.coca-colablog.com.

For more information please contact the burn team at Cake on 0207 307 3126.