Olympic Closing Ceremonies

On the last day of the Olympics, not only does Canada win an epic game of hockey against the USA, but we are lucky enough to have a friend with extra tickets to the closing ceremonies. The final event of Vancouver 2010, what would be in store?

BC Place gets ready for the closing ceremonies

 

Giant Olympic rings Awaiting the dignitaries

Attending Olympic Ceremonies requires a lot of work, we are given a box full of props to use, and are trained on how and when to use them. BC Place fills up, we put on our first prop; white tarps, and the winter wonderland is ready for the event to begin.

 

If you remember how the Opening Ceremonies concluded, a hydraulic problem resulted in one leg of the cauldron not lifting, and Catriona Lemay Doan is left standing there with the torch watching Gretzky, Nash and Greene light the cauldron.

There it is, the 3 legged Olympic cauldron. But wait... apparently Mario has come in to see what's wrong... a couple electrical connections, and some big sparks, and finally the fourth leg of the cauldron rises to a thunderous ovation. Out comes Catriona Lemay Doan to relight the 4 legged Olympic Cauldron. VANOC has a laugh at themselves and make it up to Catriona... Well Done!!!

 

 

A huge number of snowboarders perform synchronized dance moves to the music.

 

 

The Olympic athletes join in Here come our Canadian athletes

It is time to use our second prop, a coloured board with eye-holes. Each seat is assigned a specific colour, some boards have different colours on each side, we are told which side to show, and when held up they create a pattern across the seating areas.

 

After welcoming the athletes and saying "Thank You" to them and the volunteers, the Olympic flag was handed over to the Russians, and they put on an interesting display of ballet and human gerbil balls (zorbs), not only that, but they gave us all free Sochi 2014 snowglobes!

 

 

Neil Young was brought out to sing "Long May You Run", while he sang in the falling snow, the torch went out and folded away.

 

William Shatner kicks things off with his Canadian pride version of "I am Canadian", followed by Catherine O'Hara being a polite Canadian and saying "Sorry", finally Michael J Fox explains what it means to be a Canadian. Now it's time to get out our Moose Antlers.

 

Michael Bublé gave a swinging, jazzy rendition of the The Maple Leaf Forever and was joined by singing and dancing performers dressed as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, tabletop hockey players, voyageurs, lumberjacks, dancing canoes, flying maple leaves, giant inflatable beavers and moose. All of the Canadian Stereotypes in a tongue-in-cheek collage... hilarious and brilliant.

 

 

As the athletes flooded out onto the main stage, one of Canada’s most famous rock bands — Nickelback — launched into rockin’ renditions of their hits "How You Remind Me" and "Burn It to the Ground", complete with flames and fireworks

 

Canadian artists followed including Avril Lavigne singing "So Much for My Happy Ending" and "Girlfriend" and Alanis Morissette performed "Wunderkind". Simple Plan and Hedley were up next singing "When I'm Gone" and "Cha-Ching", and French-Canadian pop-rock idol Marie-Mai sang "Emmene-moi" . I swear I thought they said "Molly Maid", and thought they were coming out to clean up.

 

 

Glowing balls float down over the crowd as K-os ended the evening with "Eye Know Something"... the "OK, it's time to go" song of the night. To close the show we watched the fireworks go off on a small screen, it must have looked amazing outside of BC Place.

The athletes leave and the lights came on in the stadium, and everyone ran around the empty seats hoping to score extra souvenir books or the ultimate prize, moose antlers! and then, just like that... the Olympics were over, sniff, sniff.

26 Medals, 14 Gold (most Gold by one nation in the Winter Olympics ever) that qualifies as owning the podium doesn't it? It was estimated that 150,000 people were on Robson street that night celebrating. Canadians didn't want to see it end, "With Glowing Hearts" was a true statement of how this 2 week event affected Canadians, Canada is stronger and more patriotic because of it. Just ask the kids.

Sadly, now it's time to pay the bills.