The Closing Ceremony – surreal but spectacular

Olympic closing ceremony report by Pamela Agar

Pamela Agar, Head of Digital and Creative Media (Communications and Development), shares her experiences of reluctantly going to the Olympic Closing Ceremony on 12 August at the Olympic Stadium:

“I’m a little ashamed to admit, particularly given I know how lucky I was to have a ticket at all, that I considered not going to the Closing Ceremony. After multiple trips to the Olympic Park over the past fortnight to see swimming, diving, water polo, cycling, hockey and athletics (as I said, I’m lucky), I wasn’t sure I could face dragging my heavily pregnant frame back over to Stratford to see a somewhat random musical line-up leaked in the press in the days before.

Not a fan of One Direction, George Michael or Madness, I considered selling my ticket – but I had a feeling I’d really regret not being part of the closing spectacular in my home city. So at 19.30 on Sunday night, I found myself in the penultimate row of the packed Olympic Stadium taking part in the pre-show warm up. For 90 minutes, we practiced countdowns, dance moves and singing responses for the actual ceremony, as well as enjoying fabulous music, multiple Mexican waves and a sneak peek of the crew setting up.

Showtime arrived quickly, and it was quite a thrill as the clock counted down knowing that where we were sitting was the focus of hundreds of millions of viewers around the world. It was an impressive scene – with the London skyline filling the arena. I’m glad we were so high up in the stadium as the aerial view was spectacular as the show got underway – I loved the opening scenes of commuter London and the colourful street party.

As the show progressed into the lengthy musical segment, each scene felt a bit disjointed and lacking a general theme that the Opening Ceremony had enjoyed. Nevertheless, there’s something incredibly special about being involved in an event with 80,000 participants – so I found myself singing along to pop music that wouldn’t normally be my cup of tea!

And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry as the flame gradually went out – having looked forward to the Games since the bid was first announced, I still can’t quite believe it’s all over. It’s been an incredible fortnight, and even a horrendous journey home on Sunday night that saw me crawl into bed at 2am didn’t wipe the smile of my face!”