New Delhi, August 18 (ANI): The organisers of the Beijing Olympics are once again gearing up to dazzle the world with a glittering closing ceremony on August 24.
According to reports, the closing ceremony would not feature any full dress on-site rehearsals, quite unlike the opening ceremony.
The ceremony will be held at the National Stadium, better known as the Bird’’s Nest, reports Xinhua.
The organisers will get only eight hours to reorganise the stadium for the closing ceremony, for the Nest would host the end of the men’’s marathon on the closing day.
The London 2012 team would also be allowed time to rehearse an eight-minute dance show for the handover ceremony.
Small-scale rehearsals are being held in training sites outside the Bird’’s Nest, the organizers say.
However, they have not given further details.
Though the content of the closing ceremony remains under wraps, the paper reports that the electronic “scroll”, which unfurled China’’s history in the opening ceremony with Chinese script and pictures, and the miniature globe carrying the two Olympic theme song singers that rose from the underground would not be deployed at the closing ceremony.
But there will be another kungfu display, featuring 350 practitioners from a local martial art school, besides 60 erhu, or Chinese violin, players from eastern province of Jiangsu.
Zhang Yimou, chief director of both the opening and closing ceremonies, said earlier this month that the climax of the close would come as the Olympic flame was extinguished in the main cauldron.
“We are dedicated to creating a happy atmosphere at the closing ceremony. The message is to say goodbye, and to promise to meet again in four years,” he told Beijing News.
The organizers have also made contingency plans for emergencies that might occur during the ceremony, saying that rain still posed the biggest threat.
“Organizers may have to cut or readjust part of the show should there be rain on Aug. 24, but it should not spoil the show on the whole. The Olympic closing ceremony will present the world with a grand, ecstatic party,” the paper said, quoting unidentified staff with the BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games). (ANI)