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11 hours ago, RooBlu said:

Oh year and doesn't the harbour city like to ask "mirror, mirror on the wall... ", but the problem for Sydney is that it's so narcissistic that it hasn't yet realised that every other major capital city in the country does everything better and cheaper. At least to its credit back in 2000 it checked its ego at the door to present a wonderful display of Australia when presenting the Olympic opening ceremony ;)

Brisbane 1, Sydney 1, Melbourne 0. Although Melbourne's Olympic opening ceremony in 1956 was flawless for what it was at that time period, so I'll give the old girl 1 point. :D

 

On 3/18/2022 at 1:55 AM, RooBlu said:

I keep going back to the 82 Comm Games which offered an Opening Ceremony that was entirely Australian focussed. It had no Queensland or Brisbane references but drew together a 70 minute pageant full of colour and movement. It had a hard act to follow coming hot on the heels of the mind blowing spectacle of the Moscow Olympics, but in many ways it followed a similar theme and it all worked.

In Melbourne 2006 they made the entire ceremony ALL ABOUT MELBOURNE with obscure references that only Victorians or Melburnians would understand, like the flying seagull tram as a nod to the seaguls that flock to the MCG on late afternoons, the Michael Lunig Duck display completely lost everybody except The Age readers, AFL players and Ron Barrassi on the Yarra, using popular local contemporary artists who nobody had ever heard of outside Australia, and the list goes on. It was Melbourne putting its ego on show in the extreme. The Gold Coast repeated that mistake too by turning the 2018 Opening Ceremony into a SE Queensland tourism advertorial.

I hope that if Victoria proceeds with the 26 games that we won't repeat that mistake and I fear that putting an opening ceremony back on the MCG will invite just another Melbourne centric display.

I too was disappointed to read in that ITG report that the MCG is tipped to be the Opening Ceremony venue and not GMHBA Stadium in Geelong.  

Still, the G will enable more people to attend and experience an Opening Ceremony which as a “Part 2” if you like features an all of Victoria concept, not just the Melbourne-centric focus of the 2006 OC.

I did find the 2006 Opening Ceremony was spectacular at the beginning with the Flying Tram and the packed banks of the Yarra River also involved with the illuminated yachts, surf lifesavers and the long surf boat and line of pontoons decorated with different species of fish and eels through from which Ron Barassi then “walked on water” in a clever visual effect and up from a stairway to the Swan Street Bridge.

By the way, this website and some very interesting short videos and back-stories is worth looking at around how they got the tram prop to fly off the Great Southern Stand and land precisely in the correct position in the centre.  Yes the replica W-Class tram was made of lightweight materials and aluminium tubing but the whole thing with wings still weighed a hefty 1.8 tonnes.

This website contains several links and backstories to the 2006 Opening Ceremony:              

          Spirit of the Games - Moving the Tram - Culture Victoria
 

In addition, from  the above website is this sample video below:

 

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I live in Melbourne and I thought the 2006 Opening got weirdly whacky and downright bizarre and head scratching from the duck and boy segment onwards.   Coming 6 years after Sydney 2000’s awesome and highly successful big picture (produced by Aussie Rick Birch), whole country story-telling, Melbourne kicked an own goal and trued to be to clever and ended up confusing with people wondering “what the …..??”

I hope they don’t use Jack Moreton Worldwide production company again in 2026 which conceived and produced the 2006 Opening Ceremony.

 I hope instead an Australian company is used such as David Atkins Enterprises - daeglobal.com.  David with Ric Birch produced the Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony and then started his own company and now has offices in four locations around the world.    Amongst many other events, David Atkins Enterprises produced the :

  • 2000 Sydney Olympic Ceremonies with Ric Birch
  • 2002 Manchester Handover ceremony,
  • 2006 Asian Games Ceremonies in Doha,
  • 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Ceremonies,
  • 2011 Auckland Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony
  • 2011 Doha Arab Games Ceremonies
  • 2014 Glasgow Handover Ceremony

       

 

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As a non Australian, I actually liked how the 2006 & 18 opening ceremonies were very local... the Commonwealth Games are like a state thing in Australia, I almost see it as similar to the countries of the UK. Having ceremonies that are distinctly Victorian/Scottish/Queensland/Midlands (hopefully) takes away a little bit of the sadness that it's only the UK and Australia cares about it anymore. Except for the 2018 closing catastrophe, the less said about that the better. 

Edited by yoshi
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1 hour ago, TorchbearerSydney said:

I was at the Mebourne Opening- it was staged on an enormous scale, had some great elements (the tram, the CBD projections, the river/fireworks) but the main artistic segment was just flashy ''stuff'' with no narrative.... beautifully done though.

yes i was there too, at the city end on lower tier and at the dress rehearsal was other end in top tier directly under the roof from which the tram flew down.

agree that there was no narrative that it seems anyone could understand, it came across disconnected and random both times I saw it.  I liked the staging of it however, colourful costumes and quite a lot of flying apparatus involved.  Loved the Under The Milky Way segment with the flying ballet dancers with pyrotechnics.

 

Particularly Delta Goodrum rising up from under the dome to sing the stunning finale

“Together We are One”, which had the crown cheering through it and thunderous at the end ….

 

Beginning and Ending were fantastic, but during the middle the story-telling was lost.

Delta and her pyrotechnic roller bladers lifted the roof of the grandstands so a great ending.

 

 

 

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On 3/20/2022 at 11:28 AM, AustralianFan said:

For 2026,  I just hope they use a different production company.

Yep go back to Ric Birch who did the 82 Comm Games. His work at the time was heralded as unique and his company immediately got the gig to do the 84 LA Olympics. They've done some great productions since. At the time they didn't use fancy lighting effects or digital trickery. Even the scoreboards were very basic and weren't video boards, they just worked on a principle of flicking coloured tiles linked to a computer which changed tiles individually similar to the old arrivals and departure boards in the airports back in the 1970s. Everything was handraulic and boldly coloured which seemed to make it all the more marvellous. Wouldn't it be good to go back to those basics. It would look so vivid and organic on modern digital TVs.

181017_Commonwealth_Games_Opening_Ceremo

Opening_ceremony_(8075978683).jpg

all_that_glitters_matilda.jpg?itok=s51bf

I did learn the other day that the reason why there was no fireworks display to accompany the opening of the 2022 AFL season at the MCG (last Wednesday) is because the MFB has finally determined that the Northern face of MCG is clad with highly flammable material. The fireworks were cancelled at the last minute because the MFB wanted to be physically there with trucks at the ready in the event of an incident. I guess that the AFL decided that that might be a bad look. Geez, it's a jolly good job that it didn't somehow spontaneously combust during the opening ceremony of the 2006 Games:

dc6263fdb917648e5e0b9446945de59cbcae851c

t1larg.melbourne.2006.afp.gi.jpg&ehk=Nc1

commonwealthgames1.jpg

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If Victoria were to host the games what would be the Mascot? I'm leaning toward a "Bogan" theme :D personally. Perhaps Roy and HG Nelson were onto something with "Fatso the Fat A***d Wombat" during the 2000 Olympics:

1800.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&f

When you look at them some a re likeable and some are just plain weird.

Consider Melbourne's 2006 "Karak" so named after the screeching sound that a Southern Black Cockatoo makes. I still have a soft toy which I bought for my daughter, but she hated it so it still sits in a cupboard complete with it's original "Official Games Merchandise" tags ... Unloved:

OIP.Xp0ZSUq2naTO5MQvDitjigHaE8?pid=ImgDe

OIP.FL05U8lAakW9Bpr9i3qQGAAAAA?pid=ImgDe

Then of course there was that dunny brush that kinda looks like a blue Smurf version of "Stewie" from a Family Guy from Gold Coast 2018:

OIP.L3tpXwlDaVSUv0aevNhK9wHaHa?pid=ImgDe

There was Matilda the big Red Kangaroo from 1982:

OIP.B6YnXYOfN9i6RT3SygZj9QHaKf?pid=ImgDe

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1 hour ago, RooBlu said:

If Victoria were to host the games what would be the Mascot?

When you look at them some a re likeable and some are just plain weird.

Consider Melbourne's 2006 "Karak" so named after the screeching sound that a Southern Black Cockatoo makes

 

While I love Fatso the Wombat, he has been claimed by Sydney.  

I heard Karak has gone to Bali for a holiday with Fatso, so not sure now who might be Victoria 2026’s mascot.

How about Carl, the Murray River Cod?

 

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1 hour ago, RooBlu said:

If Victoria were to host the games what would be the Mascot? I'm leaning toward a "Bogan" theme :D personally. Perhaps Roy and HG Nelson were onto something with "Fatso the Fat A***d Wombat" during the 2000 Olympics:

1800.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&f

When you look at them some a re likeable and some are just plain weird.

Consider Melbourne's 2006 "Karak" so named after the screeching sound that a Southern Black Cockatoo makes. I still have a soft toy which I bought for my daughter, but she hated it so it still sits in a cupboard complete with it's original "Official Games Merchandise" tags ... Unloved:

OIP.Xp0ZSUq2naTO5MQvDitjigHaE8?pid=ImgDe

OIP.FL05U8lAakW9Bpr9i3qQGAAAAA?pid=ImgDe

Then of course there was that dunny brush that kinda looks like a blue Smurf version of "Stewie" from a Family Guy from Gold Coast 2018:

OIP.L3tpXwlDaVSUv0aevNhK9wHaHa?pid=ImgDe

There was Matilda the big Red Kangaroo from 1982:

OIP.B6YnXYOfN9i6RT3SygZj9QHaKf?pid=ImgDe

Yes loved the Brisbane Games in ‘82 and especially Matilda, who made a guest appearance at the 1983 America’s Cup Parade in Perth.

Tasmanians naturally weren’t happy about being left off the map of Australia, but the whole thing was a joyous celebration. Brisbane 2032 will be again.

Victoria 2026’s Opening will most likely use technical wizardry again, and may even include regional centres in the same way 2006 used the Yarra River.

 

 

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2 hours ago, AustralianFan said:

While I love Fatso the Wombat, he has been claimed by Sydney.  

I heard Karak has gone to Bali for a holiday with Fatso, so not sure now who might be Victoria 2026’s mascot.

How about Carl, the Murray River Cod?

 

How about Len or Leo the Leadbeater Possum (Victoria's faunal emblem and highly endangered), or perhaps Finn the Fairy Penguin (let's face it, their just cute)?

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2 hours ago, AustralianFan said:

Yes loved the Brisbane Games in ‘82 and especially Matilda, who made a guest appearance at the 1983 America’s Cup Parade in Perth.

Tasmanians naturally weren’t happy about being left off the map of Australia, but the whole thing was a joyous celebration. Brisbane 2032 will be again.

Victoria 2026’s Opening will most likely use technical wizardry again, and may even include regional centres in the same way 2006 used the Yarra River.

 

 

With the centre of gravity for these games being around regional Victoria a theme for the Games might be "Australia's 21st Century Gold Rush". If you look at the origins of each major centre in Victoria there's a common theme. Most started as pastoral settlements or as ports and all boomed in 19th Century with the advent of the gold rush, particularly Melbourne, Ballarat and Bendigo. Shepparton was the one exception starting out as a farming hub to evolve as the regional capital of Victoria's food bowl in the Goulburn Valley.

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26 minutes ago, RooBlu said:

How about Len or Leo the Leadbeater Possum (Victoria's faunal emblem and highly endangered), or perhaps Finn the Fairy Penguin (let's face it, their just cute)?

You’re on to something there, I think I’d put money on a possum as the mascot with Dame Edna launching it.   

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13 hours ago, ulu said:

Dame Edna will probably be fix feet under by then.

It's only four years away and as far as we know, her alter ego Barry Humphries is in reasonably good health. He doesn't drink alcohol and only gave away live performances because it was a struggle for a man approaching his 80s at the time to remember all the lines. It might even be nice and quirky to name a possum mascot "Edna". It would certainly put a smile on people's faces which is exactly what you want a mascot to do.

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2 minutes ago, RooBlu said:

It's only four years away and as far as we know, her alter ego Barry Humphries is in reasonably good health. He doesn't drink alcohol and only gave away live performances because it was a struggle for a man approaching his 80s at the time to remember all the lines. It might even be nice and quirky to name a possum mascot "Edna". It would certainly put a smile on people's faces which is exactly what you want a mascot to do.

You gotta remember too Barry Humphries is a bit damaged gods at the moment for some of his statements against trans rights (ironic considering his most popular character requires cross dressing). It would probably bring unwanted and un-needed controversy.

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3 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

You gotta remember too Barry Humphries is a bit damaged gods at the moment for some of his statements against trans rights (ironic considering his most popular character requires cross dressing). It would probably bring unwanted and un-needed controversy.

I haven't heard of that but I can understand an older person expressing highly conservative views. Heavens! My 80 year old mother reckons that Pauline Hansen walks on water because Pauline expresses the views pretty much of my mother's generation.

We can't blame a person for being a product of their upbringing and age. Look at how the Cancel Culture brigade have tried to slur Margaret Court for expressing her opinions about gay marriage. Mrs Court is a Minister of a church, so one might expect that she'd have an opinion. From my personal perspective, big deal! It's just her opinion, as does Mr Humphries no doubt have his opinions. My mother, Margaret and Barry are members of what is known as "The Silent Generation". They are the ones who preceded the "Baby Boomers". The Silent Generation were born in the late 20s through to the early 40s (The Great Depression and early WW2 era). Those folks are normally highly conservative, pragmatic, waste-not want-not, were taught very strict societal values, lived and were raised in a world where there were very defined gender boundaries. :) They are very conservative by their upbringing and nature.

We are all entitled to have opinions, and to speak them in a country that allows freedom of speech. The day that we start cancelling people out of life or out of the community because they express an opinion that we don't like is the day that we start shutting down free speech. When that day happens we cannot call ourselves a free country. I don't agree with everything said on Sky News (or on the ABC for that matter), but I don't call for them to be shut down even though some of their presenters can be down right fanatical and annoying. :rolleyes:

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