Carrara Stadium will be an inland beach for Commonwealth Games opening ceremony
CARRARA Stadium will be transformed into an inland beach as hundreds of surf lifesavers take centre stage at next week’s opening ceremony for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
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CARRARA Stadium will be transformed into an inland beach as hundreds of surf lifesavers take centre stage at next week’s opening ceremony for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Tonnes of sand have been dumped inside the stadium for Wednesday night’s opening spectacular which will feature about 400 lifesavers and nippers, The Courier-Mail can reveal.
Singers Delta Goodrem and Dami Im add star power to a cast of thousands performing, while dazzling lighting effects will include a wave breaking and receding on the sand, which will also be lit up with the flags of the 71 competing nations and territories.
Lifesavers will usher the athletes and team officials into the stadium and have even been given the job of bringing in the chairs for them to sit on.
An iconic yellow Gold Coast lifeguard tower placed inside the stadium is also set to feature in the ceremony in a salute to the Glitter Strip’s finest.
The stadium will be ringed with a ribbon of striking Aboriginal artwork as part of a strong indigenous theme, including a 500-piece didgeridoo orchestra and Aboriginal dancers, some of whom are members of the famed professional troupe Bangarra.
More than 4000 performers in the opening ceremony have been rehearsing for weeks behind the stadium walls.
But thousands of Games volunteers and about 500 local schoolchildren will get a sneak peak at the opening ceremony at a full dress rehearsal on Saturday night, which will be repeated on Monday.
The opening ceremony will be attended by about 35,000 people including Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, as well as Prince Edward, the Commonwealth Games Federation’s vice-patron.
Celebrities including Margot Robbie, Chris Hemsworth, Miranda Kerr, Mick Fanning and Greg Norman have also been invited by the State Government.
“When the world tunes in to hear what the Gold Coast has to say on April 4, we’ll be ready,’’ Games creative director David Zolkwe, who has choreographed events including the Athens Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, said.
“This city, with its connectivity to an awesome natural environment is the perfect stage from which to tell a universal story about, time, place and the things that connect us, whoever we are, wherever we are.”
The ceremony will feature a 3300m sq performance stage and 3200m sq of staging around the track to accommodate the Parade of Nations.
The stadium’s track and field will be safeguarded by more than 8000m sq of ground cloth and 6000m sq of temporary roadways.
Technicians have installed 600m of trussing to support 46 tons of audio and lighting equipment and installed and commissioned 22 high-powered projectors.
ARIA-award winning Queensland musician Katie Noonan, former frontwoman of the Brisbane band George, is musical director for the opening and closing ceremonies.
Mr Zolkwer works for US-based ceremonies experts Jack Morton Worldwide, which was embroiled in controversy four years ago after it was revealed leading Australian choreographers including Sydney Olympics ‘‘ringmaster’’ Ric Birch had missed out on the ceremonies contract.
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