The Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Birmingham “has an outreach ambition never before conceived” and will be comparable to the ceremony at the London 2012 Olympics, according to the show’s artistic director.
The two-and-a-half-hour performance in front of 30,000 spectators at the Alexander Stadium is expected to attract a global audience of one billion people when it airs on Thursday night.
It is almost 10 years since the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, which received great acclaim.
“I don’t feel at all in the shadow of the Olympic Games. I feel we have a comparable and very entertaining, moving and challenging show to share with the world,” said Iqbal Khan, the theater director who created the show. “The Olympics were extraordinary for this country, but we we refuse to be overwhelmed by it. We take that as inspiration.”
Duran Duran will return to their hometown to headline the ceremony, which will also feature Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Led by creative director Martin Green, the team behind the show includes Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and Hamish Hamilton, who has directed the Super Bowl halftime show every year since 2010.
Green, who was master of ceremonies at the 2012 Olympics, said: “This is Birmingham’s turn on the world stage and I am delighted that the rich musical heritage that is woven deep into the fabric of this place is at the heart of this generation – Definitive show.
There are 1,800 volunteers from the region taking part in the show, which will follow 72 young people representing Commonwealth nations and territories as they embark on a journey through Birmingham old and new.
“Volunteers are in the DNA of the whole show,” said Khan, associate director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, who grew up in the city. “His spirit has been overwhelming. I think it’s a joyous show and there’s never been a greater need for joy than now.”
Khan said he was keenly aware that the show was one of the UK’s first opportunities to perform on a global stage after Brexit.
Weightlifter Emily Campbell and diver Jack Laugher, both Olympic medal winners, will be the standard-bearers for Team England. Photo: Tim Goode/PA
“We’ve been through a time of unparalleled divisiveness in this country, so having the opportunity to celebrate the beautiful things about living with difference seems like a very necessary and joyful thing to do,” he said. “But I’m not doing a variety show because it’s cool or because it’s our message, I’m doing it because that’s what this place is.
“This city has been made from the voices of Commonwealth children and we want to celebrate the fact that Birmingham is now, I believe, the first Commonwealth city in the world.”
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The opening ceremony will feature the formal declaration of the start of the Games, which marks the beginning of 11 days of sport in the city, with 19 events in 16 venues.
Diver Jack Laugher and weightlifter Emily Campbell, both Olympic medal winners, will be the standard-bearers for Team England at the event.
Commonwealth Games Minister Nigel Huddleston said: “London 2012 brought such spectacle to a whole new generation. Ten years on, this ceremony will connect a new global audience and showcase the best of Birmingham and all the United Kingdom”.
Khan, who has been working on the show for 18 months, said he was confident it would “not disappoint on the scale of its theatricality and the scale of its ambition”, as well as its Birmingham presentation.
“There’s an iconic phrase that Brummies use around here, which is that we’re proud to be modest, and that’s lovely and it’s a slightly subversive joke. But I think there’s a growing desire to really make noise about ourselves,” he said Khan.
“We envisioned this show as a show of unparalleled excellence for the live audience, but also as a show on air that has an ambition that has never been conceived before.”