Sydney celebration: the opening ceremony 2000

At sunset on Friday, September 15 2000, approximately 100,00 spectators (over 4 billion viewers worldwide) and over 12,000 performers celebrated the opening of the 27th Olympiad in Sydney, Australia. Ric Birch, Director of Ceremonies, and David Atkins, the artistic director, produced an epic pageant of Australian culture, from stockmen on horseback to an Aboriginal Corroboree and clan members representing the original Australians, an homage to our sea-loving nature to the modern dance numbers which represented current Australian lifestyles and attitudes. The ceremony concluded with the Olympic torch being borne around the Olympic stadium by a succession of female athletes, acknowledging 100 years of women’s participation in the Olympics, culminating with the Olympic flame being lit by Aboriginal track star Cathy Freeman.