This post is part of Viator’s coverage of the London Olympics. Leading up to the Games and every day during the Games, we’ll be posting tips from our London-based blogger, Philippa. Be sure to check back often for the latest updates on happenings around London, news on special events and tips for what to see and do in London and the surrounding area while you’re visiting!
Olympic Stadium and the Orbit. Photo courtesy of Alexander Kachkaev via Flickr.
And so it comes to a close. The spectacular cauldron will be turned off, the flame returned to Greece for another four years until it travels to Rio de Janeiro.
If the Opening Ceremony was anything to judge by, the closing of London 2012 will be worth taking notice of, even if there has been a lot less publicity about it.
The show will be two and a half hours celebrating British popular culture of the last 60 years called A Symphony of British Music. There’ll be pop music, fashion, art and over 4,000 performers. The music is still a secret but there will be around 20 famous musicians and a focus on songs that made the top 20 each year since 1950. Rumor has it that Adele, Spice Girls, George Michael and perhaps even the Rolling Stones will perform. And of course Paul McCartney. Kate Moss is rumored to be strutting a catwalk in Vivienne Westwood’s clothes.
If Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony went back into the history that made Britain what it is, then the closing ceremony is going to take off from there and celebrate the second half of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century that it gave us.
The set designer for the show is Es Devlin who has designed shows for Lady Gaga, Take That, Rihanna and the Royal Opera House. She’s working with Artistic Director, Kim Gavin and music director, David Arnold who has scored five James Bond films and worked with Bjork and Shirley Bassey. They might not have the profile of Danny Boyle but they’ve got the creative backgrounds to make something equally spectacular.
The whole thing is being rehearsed behind an old car factory in Dagenham, east London and they have only 16 hours after the end of the athletics competition in the Olympic Stadium to set up for the massive closing ceremony.
First all 10,000 athletes and the flags of their countries will enter the stadium, marching together as one world rather than in their separate nations. Then the flags are raised: Greek as the originators of the Olympic Games, London as the current hosts and Rio as the next hosts. There will be speeches of course, including by the Queen and the Mayor of London and the Head of the IOC. The flame will be extinguished as the final symbol of the end of the games.
The Closing Ceremony will be on every television across the UK and most of the world, in pubs and on the Live Site Screens. Tickets to the ceremony are still available for either £995 or £1,500. For a more modest £61 there will be an afternoon and evening concert and live screening at Hyde Park but official tickets for this are all sold out. The Victoria Park Live Site tickets are also all sold out. Not surprising that after the magnificent Opening Ceremony and the success of these two big Live Site venues, the Closing Ceremony parties have become the hottest tickets in town.
Read more about the Olympics.
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August 10, 2012 by Viator
Festivals & Events, Unforgettable Experiences