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LOCOG via AFP - Getty Images
A handout picture released by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) on Tuesday shows a model of how London's Olympic Stadium would be transformed into a British rural scene for the opening ceremony of the games.
LONDON - The Olympic Stadium will be transformed into a British countryside meadow featuring real animals and grass during the opening ceremony, organizers said Tuesday.
With only 45 days before the spectacular show, film director and event producer Danny Boyle unveiled his ‘green and pleasant' vision that will open the games to an estimated worldwide television audience of over one billion.
More than 10,000 volunteers wearing 23,000 costumes will take part.
The ceremony is titled 'Isles of Wonder' and is said to be inspired by Shakespeare's play, The Tempest.
Read more on this story from ITV News
It will be opened with the ringing of the largest harmonically-tuned bell in the world, produced by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in east London. The bell will be inscribed with the 'Isles of Wonder' speech performed by Caliban in Shakespeare's play:
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again
– 'ISLE OF WONDER' ACT 3, SCENE 2, THE TEMPEST, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The whole of the field of play in the stadium will be transformed into the rolling British countryside. Each of the four nations will be represented by their national flower: the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the daffodil of Wales and the flax from Northern Ireland.
Real farmyard animals will graze on the set: 12 horses, 3 cows, 2 goats, 10 chickens, 8 geese, 70 sheep and 3 sheepdogs.
Boyle explains: “The Ceremony is an attempt to capture a picture of ourselves as a nation, where we have come from and where we want to be. The best part of telling that story has been working with our 10,000 volunteers. I’ve been astounded by the selfless dedication of the volunteers, they are the purest embodiment of the Olympic spirit and represent the best of who we are as a nation.”
The show will feature 12,956 props - over 100 times more than a typical West End musical theater production – and a sound system weighing more than 50 tonnes.
ITV News is the UK partner of NBC News.
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Leave a Comment:
Cows and sheep are to star in the opening Olympic Ceremony? What are they doing, flying in OWS and the Democratic Party?
The place is really going to stink.
Rule Britannia
If it's barely a sport, it's in the Olympics.
The ceremony is titled 'Isles of Cow Pies' and "Sheep Need a Little Lovin too".
Nobody does a ceremony like the British.
And that's probably for the best.
Fortunately
Watch out for global warming protestors.
Go for it Great Britain! nobody can bring a theatrical mis-en-scene like the british... It's a matter of "to be or not to be"! Never ever forget the roots!
"More than 10,000 volunteers wearing 23,000 costumes will take part"
So, roughly 2.3 costumes per volunteer - might lead to a little dehydration. Hope they have EMS standing by!
Does this mean some will be dressed as both cows and sheep?
Well if britain is so great, why have so many british moved to France ? Just in bergerac there are 34 000 of them !! We are invaded with british people ! they all come to enjoy our beautiful country, our food, our health care system, our quality of life and our weather.
I hear england has got very crowded too and way too many foreigners there, too !
France is overrun with foreigners.
Around 400,000 French people live in Britain (most of them in London).
Quote from one of them:
“London has more employment opportunities than Paris and is seen as the place where everything happens,” says Stephane Cusset, owner of delicatessen L’Eau à la Bouche in Hackney, east London.
“Eighteen years ago, I came over on a night bus with nothing but a rucksack,” Cusset says. “Now I have my own business – that would not have been possible in France. Whatever happens tomorrow, the French will keep coming to London because we love it. We feel at home here.”
Okay, as long as there is cow tipping, and people are allowed to count sheep jumping over the fence if they get sleepy.Well, maybe just the sheep. It is the Olympics after all. Though I am sure the cows will not want to be standing the whole time and a few will want to take a nap or load off their hoofs. The British do run things on a different time scale. Sure do look forward to tea and crumpets though. Should be a bloody good show.Oops, did I say bloody, I meant jolly?