UK & World News
- 13 June 2012, 4:47
Olympic Opening Ceremony Details Revealed
The field at the Olympic Stadium in east London will be transformed into rolling British countryside for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 games.
A cast of 10,000 volunteers will recreate country scenes on a stage featuring meadows, rivers, a village green, and landmarks such as Glastonbury Tor.
The set will be one of the biggest ever created and feature real grass, an oak tree, and synthetic clouds suspended from wires above the stadium - one of which will produce rain.
Real farmyard animals will be grazing on the set, including 30 sheep, 12 horses, three cows, two goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, nine geese and three sheepdogs.
Each of Britain's four nations will also be represented by Maypoles topped with the national flower; the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the daffodil of Wales and flax from Northern Ireland.
Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle, who is directing the £27m opening event, has praised the thousands of volunteers involved.
He said: "The ceremony is an attempt to capture a picture of ourselves as a nation, where we have come from and where we want to be.
"The best part of telling that story has been working with our 10,000 volunteers.
"I've been astounded by the selfless dedication of the volunteers, they are the purest embodiment of the Olympic spirit and represent the best of who we are as a nation."
Work is now underway to create the set in time for the opening event on July 27.
Lighting will soon be installed, along with a one million watt sound system.
A team of wardrobe staff are still working to produce 23,000 costumes for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog), said the ceremony will make the nation proud.
He added: "With a worldwide TV audience of a billion people and a cast of over 10,000 talented volunteers, I'm sure that Danny's ceremony will be a fantastic celebration that will welcome the 10,500 athletes from around the world and make our nation proud."
what do you think?
john
This sounds like a Monty Python sketch, dear oh dear.
djet
Looks good, a lot less tacky than most sporting ceremonies
bobh_385
It'll get tacky when you tread in cow poop lol
Louis Rayner
The 10,500 athletes had better watch where they're treading then ! and why spend £27m creating it in London? Why not just hold it in a Buckinghamshire Village ?
Name witheld
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Kelly Curtis
my idea was to have dozens of themed and shaped hot air balloons that relate to everything british (most exist already) floating over the stadium and surrounding areas,then as it darkens they perform flaring by short bursts of the flame lighting up the balloons to make them glow brightly.maybe even have acrobats swinging and abseiling from beneath them.
Joan Burgess
Why not just set off a few party poppers? Much cheaper!
Peter Coates
Shant be going anywhere near it. Probably have to pay to walk on it. On top of the fact we already paid out of our taxes to build it. Total waste of money which mostly went to foreign workers and the chiefs. Big joke. This government treat us like pawns.
KReavey
Living in Cumbria our only interest in the London games is how much it's going to cost us to entertain the hosts of professional athletes and officials.A total waste of money in a time of recession! Why don't the BBC employ regional presenters instead of sending a London based autocue reader to all points? 'cos they know it is a london event and we in the 'country' are just being patronised
andrew
does anyone really care.corporate crap
mdg219
I am looking forward to the Games and will support TeamGB all the way.
Michael Hawkins
I drive through the country every day - I do not need it re created in London in the words of one of the sponsors it not "the real thing"
Roberta Grieve
CLOUDS WITH RAIN ?. Havewe not had enough rain ? What an absolute waste of money. What an absolute load of sheer bloody rubbish.---Jimmy@Brighton
Tina Nunn
I have a feeling these are going to be the worst games ever. Its awful that we are so negative. But we cant cope with the rail travel at the moment. Whats it going to be like when we have so many people for the games + tourists. The motive on the merchandise is gross, so I cant see many people buying it. The Mascots are hideous.. The roads are going to be jammed packed. I'm sorry for our athletes that we are not behind the games. But this is not a good time to have them. I can think of all those hospitals that are crying out for the money being spent on all this.
displayim
Spot on Tina!!! We are great at wasting money on stuff like this.
ken clayton
27 million quid for a bit of grass and a few sheep and cows sounds like somebody is getting very rich on the backs of this misplaced fiasco ' if only we did not have to pay for it
gypsy56
The rolling hills, meadows, farmyards - all the things they are busy concreting over in order to house all the immigrants - about right!
Chris Price
Seeing as loads of our traditional countryside is under concrete or has been turned into farmland destroying our ecosystems. Isn't this theme in away telling lies to the rest of the world as to what Britain's really like... Then again I suppose its better than having the great unwashed on the field, Beating up old ladies and doing crack then getting given free house on the social. The armed forces being given their p45s and having David Cameron dressed as emperor Nero. Although this would be a real picture of modern day Britain. I'm sorry the only way the opening ceremony will be any good is if a huge alien mothership descends out of the clouds and removes the banking district from the face of the earth
John Thomson
Maypoles ????? How very English. Oh, and the national flower of Scotland is the Buebell, not the thistle. You'd think for 27 million, they could have afforded a researcher who actually did some research. And Ralph, not much chance. 27 mil. for the opening ceremony, an EXTRA 44 on security. The final bill will be astronomical. And you know the saying, "a million here, a million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money"
Gordon Wright
The thistle (not the bluebell)) is by far the most recognised emblem of Scotland. I was born and raised there and have never known the Bluebell to be regarded as the National flower or emblem. Although the likes of Wikipedia seem to suggest otherwise, this is what we were taught at Primary school and I think most Scots would plump for the thistle if asked.
Gordon Wright
Why is there not a section devoted to rioting and looting ???, this has surely become a national pastime
Ralph Torretta
2:01pm on 12/6/2012
Wonderful...it will be a miracle though if the OG are profitable. As far as I know no nation that hosted games made a profit from it...somehow Greece comes to mind. I wish I'm proved wrong.
Matt Sparling
2:52pm on 12/6/2012
Define profit. If you mean the games themselves via ticket sales etc then no, it will never make a profit. But. How many Billions in trade agreements will be made at corporate events hosted at the games? THATS where all the money is made at these things, not by selling cheap Olympic branded tat and tickets for synchronised swimming.
gypsy56
9:06pm on 12/6/2012
Matt - The problem is ALL these firms are FOREIGN OWNED - all the megabucks made will be flowing OUT of this country not in !