I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the dress rehearsal of the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Everyone in the stadium was asked to “Save the Surprise” which is why these photographs haven’t been posted before.
Once more it is a good sign for humanity that the organisers could trust people to go into the stadium loaded with cameras and smart phones, hoping that they would honour the plea for secrecy. It is once more an indication that trust is a true virtue that we can value collectively.
To see the Opening Ceremony before the rest of the world was a real privilege. From the moment that I walked into the stadium I had a feeling that everything was going to be okay. The British were not going to embarrass themselves with some mediocre spectacle.
What Danny Boyle and his team did has already been talked about by many, including us. So for this blog, we would just like you to sit back and enjoy once more our excitement and enthusiasm for being ever-so-slightly involved in this Olympic wonderment
CB
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Opening scenes
The Olympic Tree
The clouds
The English village scene
The tree rising to release the workers for the Industrial display
The first chimney rising with the Save the Surprise message on the screen in the background
The onset of the Industrial Revolution
Industry comes alive
The Windrush from the Caribbean
The Jarrow Marchers, slightly missed on the BBC coverage of the night
The Rings coming together
The forging and display of the Olympic Rings
The celebration of the National Health Service
A musical celebration through the decades
The end of the rehearsal
The raising of the flags
The end
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So, it’s all over.
The LOCOG slogan for this Games has been “Inspire a Generation”
Many assumed that this was just relating to sport but through this opening ceremony, Danny Boyle ensured that we could also focus on music, film and drama as well as recognise many other skills, past and present, to inspire a generation.
Creating real opportunities for future generations should be our next aim.
3D Eye 
I’m not much of an athlete myself, but I was very inspired by this Olympics. We ended up watching the opening ceremony while we were on vacation, in Charleston, West Virginia. Perhaps being on vacation made us relish the spectacle even more. We spent our quiet moments in the following of our vacation watching the games and cheering (almost) as much for the British as our own country. As an American, I found myself fascinated by the British roots emphasized in both the opening and closing ceremonies that so many of us in America can also recognize as our own. I was also reminded of the great impact that Great Britain has had and continues to have on the whole world. Thanks for sharing your experience of the events with us!
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