City set for Commonwealth Games opening ceremony
The
opening ceremony will feature a parade around Celtic Park by thousands of
athletes taking part in the Games.
The
journey from their accommodation, at the Athlete's Village in Dalmarnock, close
to Celtic Park, is expected to take about one hour.
India,
as the previous host, will lead the parade, which will end with the current
host, Team Scotland.
Teams
will parade by region. At the start of each region the crowd will be shown
video of some of the work that Unicef is doing in that part of the
Commonwealth.
At
the end of the parade, athletes and team officials will be seated on the field
of play, in the centre of the show.
Live show
The
centrepiece of the opening ceremony will be a live show consisting of about
2,000 people.
Just
over 1,600 will take part in the stadium with the other 400 having been
involved in making pre-filmed content.
The
content of the show is secret but head of ceremonies and artistic director
David Zolkwer promised it would have a distinct theme.
"Our
goal has always been to have the people of Glasgow and Scotland take centre-stage,
for them to speak and sing and dance for themselves," he said.
"So,
on the night our audience will witness thousands of real people doing
extraordinary things - and in the process I know our volunteer cast performers
will do themselves, the city and Scotland proud."
The opening ceremony will be shown
on a huge LED screen running the entire length of the south stand at Celtic
Park
Celtic
Park, home of Scottish Premier League champions Celtic, has been dramatically
transformed for the opening ceremony.
Europe's
largest LED screen has been installed, along with a specially-created stage
floor covering the entire pitch, including a walkway specifically designed for
the athlete's parade.
The
giant screen, which stands across the whole of the South Stand, is almost 100
metres long, 11 metres high and weighs 38 tonnes.
The
man charged with delivering the Games, David Grevemberg, chief executive of
organiser Glasgow 2014, said the screen would help deliver a
"magical" experience.
"It's
going to act as our window to the Commonwealth," he said.
"I
can guarantee you are going to see a lot of colour, imagery and light coming
from this."
The
screen will show the Queen formally open the Games when she reads out the
message that has been hidden inside the baton.
Baton relay
The
hand-written message was inserted by the Queen, during a ceremony at Buckingham
palace, on 9 October last year.
It
was then sealed for its journey of more than 190,000 km through Commonwealth
territories in Asia, Oceania, Africa, North and South America and the
Caribbean.
Along
the way it has been carried by thousands of baton bearers, some 4,000 in
Scotland alone, amid a carnival atmosphere in cities, towns and villages around
the globe.
No comments:
Post a Comment