The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony As a Cultural Celebration Andy Miah

www.culturalolympics.org.uk “This is for Everyone”: The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony as a Cultural Celebration Andy Miah Within the Organizing Committee of an Olympic Games, Ceremonies, Culture and Education are often under the same umbrella, but the Ceremonies occupies a distinctly prominent place within the national and international positioning of the Games and within their The IOC uses a figure of around 1 political staging. billion for the Opening Ceremony, but again this is hard This is because they are the single to evidence consistently. most watched event in the Olympic programme, with the More concretely, the BBC claimed Opening Ceremony often a “peak [UK] audience of 27.3m considered to be the most and an average audience of 23.4m watched single television event in (84% share)” for the Olympic history. Games Opening Ceremony, while 90% of the British population saw While this claim is hard to verify, part of the Olympics. This the related statistical claims by compared to 81% penetration for organisers and broadcasters the 2002 World Cup, its second further evidence the significance most watched event. To further of this part of the Olympic contextualize this figure 61% of programme. On the day of the the population saw the Kate and London 2012 Opening Ceremony, William Royal Wedding in 2011 BBC broadcasters reported a (BBC 2012). global total of 4 billion viewers, a figure that is officially used to While it is in the interest of rights claim total viewing figures for the paying broadcasters to entire Olympic Games. demonstrate the impact of their Olympic investment, the Culture @ the Olympics, 2012: vol. 14, issue 7, pp.44-57 www.culturalolympics.org.uk comparisons speak to the trying to say. By drawing on the significance of the Olympic media guide it also offers an media content. Whatever the insight into the explicit intentions actual figure of viewers, it is seen of the Opening Ceremony by organizers as a crucial creators for London 2012, while moment to reach out to a global also functioning as an abridged audience and an important insight into how an Olympic symbolic moment for a nation, as Opening Ceremony is structured. it explains who the hosts believe to be to rest of the world. Indeed, Context the Opening and Closing ceremonies together create The London 2012 Olympic Games frames around the Olympic Opening Ceremony was titled programme, providing moments ‘Isles of Wonder’, which alludes to define its significance for a to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. global audience. However, the thematic focus of Danny Boyle is born out in the This imbues their creation with a statement ‘This is for everyone’, pre-defined set of responsibilities, which he explains is inspired by which some ceremony directors the inventor of the World Wide have embraced, while others Web, British born Sir Tim have resisted. The London 2012 Berners-Lee. Opening Ceremony falls into the second category, as its artistic In this sentiment, Boyle reflects director Danny Boyle the role played by Britain in experimented with concepts of bringing about a computer heritage, identity and creative revolution that would change culture, in a way that challenged global communications and people’s expectations of how promotes the idea that the Games Britain would portray itself – and the ceremony - are not just through this unique moment. for a select number of people but, rather, is the widest and largest This essay offers an insight into peace time gathering in history. the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, drawing on Further, he explains how ‘There the script from the Media Guide are no spectators…Everyone in for broadcasters, a document that the Stadium will be part of the is publicly available after the magic’ and this was achieved event, but which can be difficult principally through the use of a to locate, especially with the novel digital ‘pixel’ apparatus in passing of time. The essay every spectators’ seat, which they endeavours to explore the used to construct parts of the symbolic content of the final spectacle. ceremony, thus confirming some of the interpretations that people The running order of scenes for have made about what it was the Opening Ceremony are Miah, 2012: Opening Ceremony 45 www.culturalolympics.org.uk summarized below (photographs and David Wilkie); the used here were taken by Andy Oxford and Cambridge Miah during the rehearsal on 25 boat race; Battersea Power July 2012): Station with Pink Floyd’s flying pig; the Houses of Countdown Parliament, the London Eye and the Rotherhithe Tunnel – until we reach the Olympic Stadium itself (LOCOG 2012, p.18) The Countdown ends with the ringing of a specially commissioned Olympic Bell – by Tour de France 2012 Champion Bradley Wiggins – and symbolizes the tradition of bell ringing in London. This new ‘Olympic Bell’, will remain in the Primary Sections: Journey along Olympic Park for 200 years and the Thames, Rings in space, was made by the same company Olympic Bell that made Big Ben in 1858 and the Liberty Bell in1752. Duration: 3mins 26 secs An opening film sequence, whereby the camera begins in the parish of Kemble in Gloucestershire, the source of London’s River Thames. Viewers follow the camera from here to London encountering along the way: Ratty and Mole, from the classic children’s book The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame; the Eton Boating Song, school song of Britain’s elite The Guide states: school; great British Bells are a crucial part of Olympians of the past London’s geography: the (June Carol, Margaret definition of a ‘cockney’ is Wilding, Michael Howard, someone born within the John Russell, David sound of Bow Bells; the Hemery, Richard Meade, bell on the Houses of Ian Hallam, John Knoych Miah, 2012: Opening Ceremony 46 www.culturalolympics.org.uk Parliament – Big Ben – Royal Society for the Protection of announces the New Year Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) had and the evening news on been consulted extensively and TV. Historically, church oversaw the involvement of the bells are rung across the animals. country to announce the coming of danger or the The animals were herded away arrival of freedom. At the from the stadium just before the end of war, or at a loud ceremony commenced. coronation, we’re all united by the peal of bells Green and Pleasant Land (p. 19) “This is the countryside we all believe existed once. It’s where children danced Wiggins was also the first British around the maypole and summer was citizen to win the Tour de France always sunny. This is the Britain of The making his presence particularly Wind in the Willows and Winnie-the- additionally within the ceremony. Pooh.” Television audiences will not Primary Sections: British have been aware that, before this Meadow, Four Nations, Arrival section began, the centre of the of the Brunels stadium was full of farmyard Duration: 4 mins 24 secs animals, which had been providing an entertaining back There are two main narrative drop in the 50 minutes leading up ambitions within this section, one to the global broadcast. relating to the overarching theme of ‘Jerusalem’, which Boyle On the approach to the Games, explains in the Ceremony there had been various protests about the use of animals within introduction: the ceremony, which prompted Woven through it all, there Danny Boyle to respond with a runs a golden thread of hand written letter that circulated purpose – the idea of on the internet indicating that the Jerusalem – of a better world that can be built through the prosperity of industry, through the caring nation that built the welfare state, through the joyous energy of popular culture, through the dream of universal communication….We can build Jerusalem. And it will be for everyone Miah, 2012: Opening Ceremony 47 www.culturalolympics.org.uk The song Jerusalem is sung by the Guide states that ‘This is the Dockhead Choir in London and is countryside we all believe existed followed by recitals of once” and is intended more as an Londonderry Air from the Giant allusion to collective memory, causeway in Northern Ireland, rather than a description of Flower of Scotland in Edinburgh, historical fact. Boyle does not and Bread of Heaven sung for claim this is British history, Wales. outside of our imagination. This section also conveys the This section also attracted spark that led to the Industrial attention in the weeks leading up Revolution, as the great British to the ceremony, as official media engineer Isambard Kingdom briefings led to leaked content in Brunel reads from Shakespeare’s the press. Boyle explained that the intention was to keep the media on side to maintain the secrecy by offering them a glimpse of the content, but images – particularly the set of this section – were communicated by the press (BBC 2012). Pandemonium “This segment celebrates Britain’s role as the birthplace of the Industrial Tempest’. Revolution – the workshop of the world” (p.22) Music during this speech is from Edward Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’, which Main Sections: The Age of is the music associated with ‘the Industry, Remembrance, The laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph Parade on Remembrance Sunday, commemorating the contribution of servicemen and women in two World Wars and later conflicts’ (p.20). Of particular interest in this section is the disconnection between what appear to have been Boyle’s intentions and how the media interpreted it. Thus, while many commentators claimed that this section bore little relation to contemporary Duration: 15mins 9seconds post-riot England, the Media Miah, 2012: Opening Ceremony 48 www.culturalolympics.org.uk Within this section, While the explanatory notes acknowledgements are made to make no mention of this, the the rise of the worker class, the forging of a fifth ring by the separation of families that ensued British industrial revolution through urban migration, the rise workers may speak to Britain’s of disease, and the presence of historical role at unifying the war.

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