London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

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Thursday, 26 July 2012 02:30

By press release

The July 27 opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which is anticipated to be a highly spectacular event, will be staged in just a few hours at the Olympic Stadium.

But closer to home, British High Commissioner Paul Brummell will be holding a celebration at his residence in Barbados on Friday evening, at which time Barbados Minister of Sport Stephen Lashley will present prizes to the winners of the British High Commission photography competition Caribbean Sporting Endeavour that was promoted on Facebook - www.facebook.com/ukinBarbados .

The winners - Nikita Campbell from St Vincent submitted an image of volleyballers entitled “Keep your eyes on the ball”, and Jennie Armstrong from Barbados depicted junior cricket at Kensington Oval between Combermere and Alexandra schools.

Campbell will join Jher co-awardee at the Opening Ceremony celebration in Barbados on Friday evening.

Meantime, British High Commissioner Brummell released the following facts ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony:

The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony is titled “Isles of Wonder”, inspired by Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest.

The worldwide broadcast of the Ceremony will commence at 21 on 27 July 2012, with the pre-show starting at 20:12.

The Ceremony is predicted to be viewed live by a worldwide TV audience of over a billion people.

It will open with the ringing of the largest harmonically-tuned bell in the world, produced by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, measuring 2 m tall by 3 m wide and weighing 23 tonnes.

In one of the largest sets ever built, the whole of the field of play in the Stadium will be transformed into the rolling British countryside, complete with meadows, fields and rivers.

It will feature families taking picnics, sport being played on the village green and farmers tilling the soil whilst real farmyard animals graze including 12 horses, three cows, two goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, nine geese, 70 sheep, and three sheep dogs.

Each of the four nations will be represented by their national flower the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the daffodil of Wales and flax from Northern Ireland.

Equipment includes:

15,000 square metres of staging – equivalent to 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools; a flying system that can lift 25 tonnes – the same as five elephants;12,956 props, over 100 times more than a West End musical; a million-watt PA system using more than 500 speakers and 50 tonnes of associated sound gear; lighting comprising 1,100 automated lamps, 1,000 conventional lamps, 500 LED fixtures, and 32 follow spots; and costumes including 24,570 buttons for just one of the opening sequences.

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There will also be 10,000 adult volunteer performers consisting of performers from the NHS for a special sequence that celebrates Britain’s National Health Service and 900 children aged 7-9 years and 11-13 years chosen from schools in the six host boroughs engaged in the official London 2012 Get Set education programme.

For all four Ceremonies there will be 20,000 volunteer cast members, from across the UK, 18-90 years old, including people who watched the London 1948 Games live; 23,000 costumes and a total of 12 hours of music; a combined TV audience predicted to be over four billion people;
and 2,000 staff, crew and suppliers.

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