BEIJING OLYMPICS CLOSING CEREMONY AND HANDOVER

The countdown to the show began with video animation on the LED screens at the ends of the stadium. The final five seconds were counted using air-burst fireworks that drew the numerals in the sky above the stadium. The show began with a military band welcoming the President of China and the President of the IOC to the Presidential box. This was followed by the protocol of raising the PRC flag.

‘REUNION’
The first artistic segment of the show was titled ‘Reunion’.  200 drummers assembled in circles on the steps of the centre stage.  Two ‘Sky Drums’ were lifted up by the stadium rigging, one at each end of the field. The drums were 6m in diameter and each one was played by two men. As the drums flew towards the centre stage, 1200 Silver Bell dancers entered and formed concentric circles around the stage. The Bell dancers spread out across the field forming sinuous avenues.  The field turned dark blue and their costumes, made with LED bonnets, shoulder capes, cuffs and boots, illuminated. 60 ‘Monovelo’ cyclists with LEDs on the wheels of their unicycles streamed in procession along the avenues. 

At the same time, eight Drum Wagons and eight ducking-stools (Chinese interpretations of ideas first sketched by Ray Winkler at Stufish), moved around the edge of the field.  Last to enter the scene were 200 jumpers on kangaroo stilts, who bounded across the open spaces.

As the scene came to a close, the Drum Wagons and Bell dancers formed four welcome corridors on the field stretching from the centre stage to the entrance tunnels.  A 47 piece women’s percussion band and 2 child drummers assembled on the centre stage.  They played as the flags of the 204 participating National Olympic Committees were carried down the corridors and formed into a circle around the stage.  They were followed by the athletes, who moved into the open areas between the corridors.

The medals for the men’s marathon were presented on a small stage in front of the Presidential box.  This was followed by the induction of four new members of the IOC and the presentation of flowers to representatives of the Beijing volunteers.

The Greek flag was raised, and Liu Qi, President of the BOCOG, and Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC moved from the Presidential box to the centre stage to make their closing speeches.  They were followed by the raising of the Union flag of Great Britain, and the lowering of the Olympic flag.

Accompanied by flag-bearers carrying an Olympic flag, the Mayor of Beijing, Guo Jinlong, and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, walked to the centre stage for the handover ceremony.  The flag was passed from the Mayor of Beijing to the IOC President, who handed it to the Mayor of London.

The flagbearers carrying the flags of the 204 participating NOCs exited, the VIPs returned to the Presidential box from the centre stage, and the eight minute London Handover segment began. 

HANDOVER CEREMONY
A red double-deck London bus entered the stadium from the north east tunnel.  It drove around the track in a clockwise direction, finishing up opposite the Presidential box.  As it rolled, a short video ran on the LED screens at the ends of the stadium.

The bus was accompanied by Team GB cyclists, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Shanaze Read, who rode alongside in street clothes.  During the journey, a bus queue formed at a bus stop in front of the Presidential box.  The bus pulled up alongside the stop, and a young British girl got off.  She was met by a Chinese girl, who gave her a football.  The crowd at the bus stop – a typical collection of Londoners - began to dance around the bus.  A few minutes later, the bus began to transform from red to green as the roof and sides unfolded to reveal an interior of mown grass and topiary hedges.  Leona Lewis rose up above the topiary in a glamorous evening gown.  Moments later, Jimmy Page appeared from behind the hedge on another lift and began to play the guitar riff that introduces Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’.  Then David Beckham appeared from behind another hedge, holding the football that the girls had exchanged minutes before.  He kicked it into the crowd of athletes.  The dancers performing around bus produced umbrellas, opened them and stuck them into the grass lawns on the sides.  LEDs mounted in the umbrella canopies lit up with bright swirling patterns, then changed to the London 2012 logo as the bus and the crowd of performers exited the stadium.

THE TOWER OF MEMORY
An aircraft boarding ladder was parked at the south end of the stadium.  Three performers dressed as athletes preparing to board a plane climbed the ladder, and stood on the top platform gazing at the Olympic flame.  At the same time, the Tower of Memory started to rise up from the centre stage.  As the tower rose, two statue performers on the top platform moved in slow motion through poses that symbolized the Olympic sports.  As soon as it was at full height, 396 acrobats climbed the tower and attached themselves to rigging points on the structure.  As the Olympic flame was extinguished, the acrobats on the tower were illuminated.  They performed a complex choreography on the surface of the tower, forming helical coils, rings and peony blossom patterns.  At the climax of their performance, 16 2m wide x 30m long ribbons were deployed from the top of the tower and pulled up to the rigging in the stadium roof, forming a single tree of Olympic torch clouds.  As the ribbons were raised, they revealed the acrobats on the tower forming the Beijing  Olympic logo on the sides.

CARNIVAL
The third artistic segment was titled ‘Carnival’.  A group of famous Chinese and international singers assembled around the Tower of Memory and started to sing an especially composed song – ‘Beijing Beijing I Love Beijing’.  At the climax of the song the tower acrobats made dramatic descents by abseil and zip line.  The singers followed with a traditional Chinese folk song ‘Bright Moon Tonight’.  At the end of the song, attention switched to Plácido Domingo and the Chinese Singer Song Zuying, who had appeared on a telescoping platform located between the Presidential box and the tower.  They sang ‘The Flame of Love’.  This was followed by a couple of Chinese pop songs.  Then 200 acrobats climbed back onto the tower, holding brightly coloured ‘Fu Wa’ ribbons that they started to wave.  All the other performers and marshals on the field produced ribbons from their pockets and started to wave them.  As they did so, 60 machines beneath the stage ejected a huge cloud of confetti into the air, and the finale fireworks began.  The fireworks included full colour air-bursts of the Olympic rings that were visible from inside the stadium.