Standing on Ceremony

The Games of the XXX Olympiad are here, folks!

I was one of the lucky 80,000 ticket-holders to Danny Boyle’s extravaganza, and simply put, I enjoyed an outstanding opening night experience.  This is a true “Bucket List” addition for anyone – a once in a lifetime experience, that I will remember vividly for the rest of my life.  And I didn’t even have to suffer a disinterested narration from Trevor Nelson...  As I said in my last blog entry, it would have been errant to copy previous Opening Ceremonies, and Boyle’s arrangement, to my eyes, was spot-on – I’ll get to this in more detail later.

Firstly, I’ll talk about the overall Olympic Park experience.  There was no queue at all for security, which was manned by some very pleasant Army officers, with not a G4S employee in sight.  This is my first picture, after passing security and entering the Park:

Moving further into the Park, I was particularly impressed by The Orbit, which I’ll be attending later in The Games:

Next, a shot of the stadium itself:

What caught my eye initially in the Park was the wide range of nationalities represented amongst the spectators.  I’m sure that this will continue to be evident throughout the Games.  Many people were adorned with their national flags, and the venue was a sea of bright colours:

So, to the Ceremony...  Until 8 or 10 weeks ago, I had no intention to attend.  I’m a sport fan, and I had the (misguided) perception that the Ceremony may be a little too artistic for my sport-orientated taste.  However, I was persuaded to take an interest by a close friend of mine, who has attended an Opening Ceremony in the past.  And when LOCOG randomly uploaded some new tickets to its website in June, I had no hesitation in making the purchase.  The ticket was not expensive either – indeed it was only half of the price of my FA Cup Semi Final ticket from earlier in the year.  And with a far more positive outcome!

All of the correct boxes were ticked by Boyle:  the representations of British life & culture through the years, the outstanding music, the self-deprecating humour, the obvious eccentricities, the original method to light the cauldron.  Thousands of people participated in the various arrangements, and I didn’t see anyone put a foot wrong.

It was also very pleasing to see the level of social media interactions on the night.  I was posting photos and updates live from the stadium throughout the evening, and I counted something like 70+ “likes” during the evening from my Facebook friends from all around the world, which far exceeded my expectations, and which served to prove the enormity of what I witnessed.

Proud to be an Olympic fan.  Proud to be British.