The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony is the most watched event in the world with an estimated 1.4 billion people tuning in to a Summer Games ceremony. Most of this audience will have had no prior coverage of the local political issues that surrounded the Games, nor will they care too much about these matters, since they are tuning in to see athletes prepare to compete in sports.
While the Winter Games attracts fewer viewers than the Summer, due in part to their being fewer countries participating, they are no less pivotal in terms of how they define an Olympic host population's emotional attachment to its Games. Thus, opening ceremonies tell powerful stories about the Olympic host's identity and values, which are consumed and interpreted by a local and global audience.
In Torino 2006, the Ferrari spinning doughnuts in the stadium and the avant-garde costumes emphasized Torino's design excellence and was reminiscent of the extraordinary beauty of the opening ceremony of Albertville 1994. In Beijing 2008, the choreographic feat of 2,008 dancers, the magnificence of the 'bird's nest' Olympic stadium and the fireworks spectacle that typified China's expertise with pyrotechnics, all showcased China's emergence as a global superpower.
In Vancouver tonight, the Opening Ceremony will be a turning point for how many Vancouverites feel about the last 7 years of preparation. For those who may have been negatively affected by the process, the sight of athletes entering the arena can often inspire feelings of admiration, pride and a great sense of empathy over the athletes' imminent challenge, which can move even the hardest cynic.
These athletes have trained all their lives for this single competition and we, as their audience, have the opportunity to witness their defining moment. What they achieve will become part of our history and, particularly for those who see the sports live, the spectacle can be an experience of a lifetime.
Technically, the Vancouver 2010 opening ceremony began a few months before February 12th, when the Olympic flame was lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece. From there, it was taken across the world to Canada, where the flame relay began. In recent years, the relay became an international event, moving from one country to the next. However, after the protests that occurred on the approach to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the IOC decided to end such extensive relays. This is unfortunate and the IOC should reconsider this decision, not least because the torch is the sole opportunity for the general public to encounter the Olympic experience.
As the opening ceremony begins, the flame works its way to the stadium, ready for one of the Games' most iconic moments: the lighting of the cauldron. This moment also has important cultural significance, both in terms of who lights the cauldron and how it is lit.
Unforgettable moments in Olympic history include the archer of Barcelona 1992 who shot a flaming arrow into the cauldron, thus igniting it (he actually overshot for safety, but the choreography read beautifully). As well, the continual pressure to surpass the spectacle of previous Games leads to quite remarkable and sometimes convoluted feats.
The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was no exception, as the former Chinese gymnast, Li Ning, sprinted a victory lap across the upper part of the stadium, suspended high above the ground, before finally arriving to the cauldron. It was a moment that beautifully articulated China's technological power and its burgeoning creative industries.
The individual chosen to light the cauldron often has important symbolic value for a nation. On some occasions, a well-known global personality is chosen, such as Muhammed Ali at the 'Coca-Cola' Games of Atlanta 1996. However, often, the individual is not well known to a global audience, thus requiring that this moment overwhelms an audience through drama alone.
When the cauldron is lit in Vancouver, the frustrations of many locals will be temporarily put on hold, as the ceremony will have weaved a narrative around some of these tensions, occasionally exposing them. Also, out of respect for the visiting nations, the desire to be a good host -- and the need to have a very big party -- this moment will be a collective, cathartic experience for many Vancouverites.
As dawn breaks the next day, it will be business as usual for those very same people, as both the competitors and the activists go about their work, all in the name of making Olympic history.
But, one thing is for sure -- they'll all meet again at Holland Heineken House in Vancouver the following night, and each subsequent night of the Games!
Follow Andy Miah on Twitter: www.twitter.com/andymiah
| 1 | United States | 46 | 29 | 29 |
| 2 | China | 38 | 27 | 23 |
| 3 | Russia | 24 | 26 | 32 |
| 4 | Great Britain | 29 | 17 | 19 |
| 5 | Germany | 11 | 19 | 14 |
| 6 | Japan | 7 | 14 | 17 |
Unfortunately, over here in the States, it was completely ruined by US television network commentators who would not. shut. the. f---. up. They even broke away from showing what was going on to interview US athletes trying to watch it live themselves.
I have never wanted to put my foot through my television set so much as I did that day.
One of the frustrating aspects of all ceremonies is how much traditional media rely on the Media Guide script. there's little sponaneity in their coverage and little emotion. I was able to obtain the guide for Torino 2006, but havent found one online for Vancouver. Let me know if you have found one, it's v interesting reading. Did you feel that it represented the 4 nations adequately?
chill out
seriously..
If live performance promoters pulled any of these deceptive stunts fans would cause anarchy, but the IOC gets away with it because they brilliantly leverage sports patriotism.
BTW, I have two decades of experience marketing high end live performance concerts around the world and I'm intimately familiar with how to manage promotion and ticketing strategies at a professional, hands on senior level. I'm also the author of Leverage Olympic Momentum, a book published in 2006 exploring how the Olympics impacts Host communities, with a focus on Vancouver.
Just as I posted this, I received word that VANOC just released more $1,100 tickets on their website, which makes the circumstances for re-sellers even more challenging. Brilliant on VANOC's part to undermine scalpers, unfortunately, a lot of very average people are being stung. Is it any wonder people in Host regions grow to hate the Olympics?
2./ The interest in the Host region for people to see the live show is actually NOT there, probably in large part due to local Olympic fatigue.3./ Here's where it gets really interesting though;
The $1,100 high priced tickets were marketed by VANOC in the section of the stadium that holds the MOST seats, and NOT respective of where the BEST seats are actually located.
It was a very slick move on the IOC's part to fool people into thinking they were buying the best seats in the house when in fact they were simply buying seats in the biggest area. It's deceptive, but as you can see the return for VANOC is obviously much larger.
If the $1,100 seats were really that good, people would be snapping them up today, but when you go to the seating plan, which was NOT available when people ordered their seats (they were forced to buy them on blind faith implicitly trusting the IOC), you can easily see that only about one third of the tickets are good seats and worth the price. The rest are much less desirable. People are only now realizing they were misled.
continued
Yesterday, at some times of the day one day before the ceremony, for hours on end mid and latter day, new posts were being added at a rate of about 45 per hour, and most of them were for much less than face value. This is an unprecedented number for Craigslist in Vancouver. The action on their site is furious and impossible to keep up with, or to track accurately.
Today, day of show, re-sale ticket prices are increasing a bit, but still not much beyond face value, and still many people are dumping in a panic mode.
If Opening Ceremonies is as popular as the IOC claims, why is this happening?
Read the next post to find out . . .