London 2012 Olympics - Opening Ceremony Rehearsal Photos

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to one of the rehearsals of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games - part of me can't believe I've just written that. We were asked to #savethesurprise and I did. By now you'll have seen the Ceremony so I thought I'd share some photos.

The Opening Ceremony was spectacular and touching by turns. Beijing 2008 was amazing, with thousands of people all doing the same thing at the same time - London 2012 had thousands of people doing different things, telling multiple stories and I loved it. Wherever you looked around the stadium there was a different story and we only saw some of the them on the broadcast of the Ceremony.

That was particularly true of the pastoral scene at the start, and the move to the industrial revolution. The cricket, the football, the young ladies being blown along with their parasols, the Suffragettes throwing themselves in front of horses, the Jarrow Crusade... so much going on. The telly editors kept focusing down on the micro rather than giving us the macro picture, but it was a grand spectacle and full of surprises.

I loved seeing the lyrics to 'Pretty Vacant' spelled out by the lights in the crowd, the colour-washes across the stadium, the blasts of flame during 'Firestarter', light and spectacle everywhere along with very clear sound. There were still lots of surprises since we didn't get the full picture at the rehearsal so it was great to see the full show on Friday.

Here are some of my photos from the rehearsal. It's something that I will remember for a long time to come.

London 2012 Olympics - Opening Ceremony Rehearsal

On Monday evening I was lucky enough to have a ticket to see one of the technical rehearsals of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games in the Olympic Stadium. We didn't see the whole opening ceremony, some scenes were kept as a surprise and some scenes weren't complete, but what I saw was pretty spectacular and nicely representative of Britain.

At the start of the show Danny Boyle, who created the Opening Ceremony, came on stage and asked us not to spread photos or videos of the event to avoid spoiling the surprise. I said to myself that I wouldn't. Except for this one photo. #savethesurprise

I was terribly thrilled to be in the Stadium and to be sitting quite close to where I'll be sitting for one of the athletics evenings in a couple of weeks time so I got a good idea of what I'll be seeing. I'm quite close to the Royal Box and the VIP boxes and will have an excellent view of the runners, jumpers and spear throwers.

The grounds looked excellent, all the recent rain followed by the glorious sunshine of the last few days makes the place both lush and colourful.  Getting through security was straight forward, with all the soldiers being very friendly, efficient and very professional about it, wishing me an enjoyable evening.

I bought an official programme and a couple of 2012 badges from the small souvenir shops that are dotted round the Olympic Park. When I go next time I'll go to the London 2012 Superstore near Bridge D and see the full range of merch - hey, if you go to an event you've got to get some merch. It's sort of The Law.

There are lots of food outlets, bar stands and toilets all over and no queues at any of the toilets that I saw. The queues were saved for the water fountains to fill water bottles since you're not allowed to take any liquids into the Olympic Park. Hopefully, someone will have noticed this and will arrange for more water fountains for when the Park opens properly.

I'd love to tell you about some of the spectacular scenes in the Opening Ceremony, about the Olympic Rings, the lighting and the excellent sound system but I won't. I'm so tempted but I said I wouldn't so I won't.  #savethesurprise