The London 2012 Opening Ceremony - Big Screens

Remember China? Before the Olympics the stadiums weren’t finished, there was apparently a three mile toxic cloud that had to be moved, there was criticism of China’s appalling human rights and working conditions. But then the Games began! And the opening ceremony started - with the crazy drummers and the globe walking and the calligraphy thing and the dancers in boxes! And everybody was like: “You know what? You know what? If forced labour got that done, God bless. Because you know why, those dancing boxes didn’t miss a fucking beat.
- Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

For a long time after London took the Olympic baton from Beijing with a toe-curling display of theatre school kids, dancing lollipop ladies and a Leona Lewis / Jimmy Page team-up we were dreading this day: The Olympic Opening Ceremony. We do not have a promising track record with this sort of stuff: The wobbly dragon at EURO 96 was a national embarrassment, the Millennial River of Fire managed to be less impressive than a set of indoor fireworks.

Then in January we heard Danny Boyle explain that our opening cermony would feature sheep and artificial meadow and we were reassured by his warm Lancastrian tones, and by his colleague who said that the thing to remember about opening ceremonies was that no-one ever wished them longer. Since then, we've heard from a few people involved with the show or who've been to the rehearsals and they promise it's going to be awesome to the max.

So now the question is where to watch it? There are two big outdoor screenings nearby.

Blackheath will host the Lewisham Big Screen, with a funfair, Spiegel tent and ready access to the Hare and Billet:

 

Meanwhile, the Brockley Market team have been poached to provide food for the Greenwich Summer Festival at the Royal Naval College, complete with Big Screen and "a dazzling Aerial Circus Show performed by Greenwich’s very own Hangar Arts Trust plus live music on the Bandstand." Brockley Market will be on as usual tomorrow.

What are you planning?