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Opening Ceremony


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Mmmm very true.

I maintain (and I doubt this would ever happen) that she could write a pulsating track to form the basis of the final stages of the torch journey and lighting of the cauldron.

Something modern, tribal, catchy and inspiring - all ending in a mighty climax.

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I just don't get the, to use a part-pun, ap"peal"of a 'huge bell.' Is that supposed to be a joke? Legacy? How about a 'time capsule'? I think you could fit a few more interesting things in a 'time capsule' than some silly bell. Okay, Ding-Dong. Now what?

And what key will the bell be in?

When I used to live in SF, those fog bells in buoys on the bay used to drive me NUTS at night. Let's see how Danny Boyle and the residents of the new Parklands will deal with having a HUGE bell ring regularly at odd hours of night or day as a 'legacy' of 2012. And you have to ring the damn thing because that's what you wanted it to do in the first place, right?

I'd wait to see that giant-bell-ringing schedule before I bought a unit at the Olympic Village.

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Nice find, hiroamorim. It's appalling, though, that they call Danny Boyle "Andy" throughout the video. He provides them some insight into the ceremonial rehearsals and they can't even get his name right... *facepalm*

However, I have a question: Do the volunteers already rehearse the actual choreographies for the ceremony at this point in time? Or do they just rehearse a test choreography to sort all the bad dancers out? If the previous is the case, I wonder why Beyoncé's "Love On Top" (1:07) is part of the ceremonial music... ;)

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However, I have a question: Do the volunteers already rehearse the actual choreographies for the ceremony at this point in time? Or do they just rehearse a test choreography to sort all the bad dancers out? If the previous is the case, I wonder why Beyoncé's "Love On Top" (1:07) is part of the ceremonial music... ;)

It's the one in bold. It's to see who can perform the prospective moves, who have good movement and stay on beat with the music. It's way too early to have decided on the final choreography. (Already, I could see a few who have a hard time with the beat.)

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It's the one in bold. It's to see who can perform the prospective moves, who have good movement and stay on beat with the music. It's way too early to have decided on the final choreography. (Already, I could see a few who have a hard time with the beat.)

Thanks, Baron!

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Ronnie Wood: I’m an Olympic bi-athlete

RONNIE Wood could be at the Olympic site more often than Sir Chris Hoy this summer.

The Rolling Stones guitarist has been asked to perform at both the opening and closing ceremonies – in different bands.

Ronnie said: "We've got more meetings, everyone wants to do it.

"I've been asked to do the opening ceremony with the Stones and close the games with The Faces.

"I've got to be the first bi-athlete musician."

He'd definitely be the first chain-smoking athlete.

Ronnie is going to have a job on his hands squeezing in time for rehearsals if both of the bands decide to do the gigs. The rocker's got one of his busiest years yet coming up.

... more at: The Sun

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Locog wrestles with logistical challenges thrown up by Games opening ceremony

Olympic organisers are preparing detailed plans to ensure that a host of VIPs, led by the Queen and including up to 100 heads of state, can get in and out of the main stadium without delay on the opening night of the Games.

Ensuring the smooth transport of world leaders, politicians, Olympic officials and senior media figures is seen as crucial to ensuring that the opening ceremony sets the tone for the 16 days of competition that follow. Organisers are desperate to avoid a repeat of the calamitous opening night of the Millennium Dome, when politicians and newspaper editors were stranded at Tube stations before and after the event in Greenwich.

The logistical failure that night, coupled with the obvious awkwardness between the Queen and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in their midnight rendition of Auld Lang Syne, helped cement the Dome’s reputation as an expensive failure.

To avoid a repeat when the eyes of the world are on the capital, a London 2012 working party has been working on detailed plans to ensure VVIPs are not held up in the rush to leave the stadium after the show.

The challenge is acute given the geography and design of the Olympic Stadium. The arena is built on an island in the Olympic Park, with limited access from bridges across the waterways that surround the site. There is also very little room around the stadium for vehicles and pedestrians.

With the opening ceremony extremely unlikely to finish before midnight and pushed to end before the Tube network shuts at 12.30am, organisers are grappling with the issue of how to get VIPs and other guests swiftly and safely away from the arena.

In Beijing, the Chinese authorities used a massive police and army presence to throw up cordons on the vast ‘Olympic Green’ surrounding the Bird’s Nest Stadium, with spectators made to wait behind lines of uniformed officials while buses streamed away carrying the most prestigious guests. London has neither the manpower nor the space to operate a similar system, hence the need for meticulous planning, which they insist is aimed at all those attending, not just the VIPs.

Nevertheless, VIPs, the “Olympic family” of International Olympic Committee members and others, politicians, media, sponsors and their guests will make up the majority of the 60,000 crowd in the stadium, 20,000 fewer than capacity because of the need to free seats for TV cameras and performers.

Locog will not confirm how many seats have been made available in the public ticket ballots so far, but it could be as few as 30,000. It says that until the opening ceremony itself is finalised and TV requirements settled, it cannot be specific.

VIPs, including the IOC members, are likely to be ferried to the site by buses using the Olympic lanes from their central London hotels and will be deposited close to the stadium. They can then reassemble following the show to be whisked away by road.

As well as the IOC and heads of state, Locog has to ensure that thousands of athletes who take part in the ceremony are safely shuttled back to the Olympic village, as well as the 15,000 performers and thousands of catering and security staff who will take the total up to 100,000.

Athletes and officials who choose to take part in the parade at the ceremony are expected to assemble in the Basketball Arena before being transported to the stadium.

Get it right and the tone will be set for an opening day of competition on Saturday July 28 that could be capped by a British gold medal for Mark Cavendish. Get it wrong and the cyclist may be required to lighten the mood.

...

http://www.telegraph...g-ceremony.html

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It's ridiculous the tube closes at 12.30am (on any night, never mind for one of the biggest events in London's history). We all here can tell you that if the ceremony begins at 9pm it won't be over by 12.30am. Indeed if it began an hour earlier people would still struggle to make the Tube in time.

As for the Opening Ceremony seating - is the 20,000 reduction an indication athletes may be seated, or just the standard number of corporate/official spectators a games can expect.

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As for the Opening Ceremony seating - is the 20,000 reduction an indication athletes may be seated, or just the standard number of corporate/official spectators a games can expect.

That "20,000" figure is all wrong. With a demand of 1.4 million orders, they will seat 9,500 athletes? No way (The athletes are being assembled at the Basketball venue...so, they will maintian tradition and have the athletes stand as in part Summer OCs..) I doubt that VIPs, press, sponsors, etc. would exceed 4,200 seats.

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OK, so I'm really confused now...the LOCOG website says the ceremony starts at 7:30 but this article says 9:00. Which source is correct? The 9:00 start seems way too late.

Even 7:30 seems a bit late. How long do these usually go for? 3-4 hours? I'm gonna say 4 hours to accommodate that it is a summer games and that's a whole lot of athletes marching into the stadium, unlike the winter games.

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Watching the One Year To Go Ceremony and supposing the OC will start at the same time

I'm not sure but I think it will start at day light.

Video from the party

And I think the first segmente just after the countdown will be something like Barcelona and Atlanta, bunch of people wearing colorful dressing and playing a big coreography

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THey really can't make it too late because some athletes will be competing the next day; and many workers, volunteers, will be putting a full day next day.

Recent Summer Olympic organisiers didn't care about that either -- their opening ceremonies started also that late and finished around midnight. Atlanta's OC started at 8:45 p.m. and ended at 12:40 a.m., Athens' OC started at 8:45 p.m. as well and I seem to remember it finished shortly after midnight. Beijing's OC started at 8 p.m. and took how long -- three and a half hours? And I also seem to remember that Sydney's OC finished between 2 and 3 p.m. CET (I remember that I could still watch quite a large portion of the OC when I returned from school), which translated to 11 to 12 p.m. Sydney time. Barcelona's OC finale must also have been shortly before midnight, since they started at 8 p.m.

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I cannot understand why London is not extending tube service hours past 12:30... not only are late events an issue for visitors but also the nightlife and issues of hundreds of thousands of tourists wanting to go to bars, clubs, and other events at night during the games... I think it would make much more sense to extend hours to 2am during the games. Is this some type of issue in which the Tube workers union refuses to chip in and extra 90 minutes for 2 weeks?

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guys, this thread is really long.

have the spice girls been engaged for this yet? i know it's not 1997, but we're not going to have to settle for adele are we? singing hometown glory or something?

oh god. we are aren't we?

There is a rumour from a highly credible source that Cheryl Cole will be doing a modern interpretation of the national anthem with Cher Lloyd beatboxing to it.

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