After two weeks of frantic excitement, on and off the field dramas, a loud cheer from the fans and birth of many new champions, the London Olympics comes to an end tonight with a dazzling closing ceremony.
The cauldron of the Games will be formally extinguished sometime in zero hour in London to signal the end of what the British media have already called the most successful ever Olympics.
The closing is unlikely to match the Games’ glitzy opening ceremony but it promises at least some glamour with performance from Spice Girls and some other famous British bands.
Titled ‘A Symphony Of British Music’ the closing ceremony will mainly highlight the 50 years of British music and culture just like the opening ceremony projected the country’s industrial and technological might.
The details of the closing ceremony, which will start with a pre-show at 1:00am (Bangladesh Standard Time), were kept secret officially but it did not end the guessing game.
Local media have already revealed many secrets and they were helped by rehearsal held at Ford car park in Dagenham in east London.
Photographs of all five reunited Spice Girls dancing atop black London taxis in rehearsal emerged in newspapers making a rendition of some of their hits almost certain.
The globe-conquering boy band One Direction along with Coldplay, Muse, The Who, Queen, Madness, Annie Lennox, Kaiser Chiefs, Tinie Tempah, Jessie J Ed Sheeran and Elbow are also expected to feature.
Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell are set to feature in a segment celebrating British fashion while Jessie J will reportedly perform in an open-top Rolls Royce before Pet Shop Boys enter the stage on cycle-rickshaws.
Daily Mail reported that the show will also feature models of London landmarks including Tower Bridge, Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral.
The creative director and choreographer of the ceremony is Kim Gavin, who may not have the fame as Danny Boyle, the Oscar-wining film director who had conducted the opening ceremony, but he has at least something in him.
Kim Gavin has overseen tours for the band Take That and directed London’s 2007 Princess Diana memorial concert, which made him a worthy choice for such a glamorous ceremony.
Es Devlin, who designed the sets for closing ceremony, is also not known as any callow having an experience of creating sets for everyone from Lady Gaga to the Royal Opera.
The closing ceremony will have some protocol events as usual like playing the Greek national anthem, lowering the Olympic flag and a parade of athletes.
To mark the transition of Olympics from one city to another, an artistic segment of the closing ceremony lasting eight minutes, will be devoted to the next host city Rio de Janeiro. The segment is an invitation to the youth of the world to attend the next Olympics.
-With New Age input
