2010 Summer Youth Olympics - Opening Ceremony

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony of the Games was held on 14 August at The Float@Marina Bay, a floating stage near downtown Singapore. Approximately 27,000 spectators attended the event, which took place against a backdrop of the city's skyline. Event tickets cost between S$30 and S$200. The show, the largest ever held by the city, involved over 750 hours of rehearsals. Over 7,000 performers, mostly under the age of 18, took part in the ceremony. At the centre of the stage was the 32-metre (35 yd) tall Olympic cauldron designed by Randy Chan as a lighthouse. It was flanked by six giant LED displays, which stood behind a reflecting pool containing 200 t (7,100,000 oz) of water. Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong was present at the event.

Following pre-show warm-up and a countdown led by children and young drummers, the show began proper at 20:10 hrs (UTC+8)—a reference to the year of the event—with a fireworks show, followed by a cultural segment titled "Selamat Datang" that featured Chinese, Malay and Indian performers. The segment ended with performances by homegrown artistes of Eurasian and Peranakan heritage, symbolising the mixture of tradition and modernity in Singapore. Audience members were greeted with pre-recorded messages from several Olympic ambassadors: Olympians Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Yelena Isinbayeva, members of the band 30 Seconds to Mars, and actors Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The flag of Singapore entered the stage with the Deyi Military Band, who had won the Display Band of the Year Award and Best Drum Major of the Year Award in the Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging Display Band Competition 2010, performing "Five Stars Arising", and the national anthem while the flag was raised.

During the "Origins" segment on the city's history, performers entered the stage in freight containers to depict the arrival of the earliest immigrants. The ceremony continued with a dance performance featuring popular songs from the 1940s to the present era. A segment entitled "Monster" told the story of a young boxer who had to fight a giant monster. He summons his Silat warriors to fight against the monster, but they failed, as well as when he summons his Kalari warriors and Wushu warriors. But soon he overcome his inner fears and deafeat the giant monster. Singer Seah Wei Wen then performed his self-written song "Across The Finish Line" in the centre of the reflecting pool. It was followed by "Playing with Fire", which featured the dragon as a symbol of courage, strength and wisdom. Reflecting the theme of global co-operation, members of the World Youth Orchestra of the Singapore Games performed an orchestral piece featuring various instruments from around the world. The orchestra was led by Darrell Ang, the young associate conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The following segment, titled "Bud", depicted rain as a symbol of hope and rejuvenation. Ending the show segment of the ceremony were singers Marcus Lee of Ex-Dee and Lian Kim Selby, performing the song "A New Story", which was commissioned for the event. Their performance was accompanied by a fashion show organized by students from LASALLE College of the Arts.

Each flag of the National Olympic Committees represented was brought on stage by an athlete representative. Following Olympic tradition, the flag of Greece entered first, and the flag of Singapore entered last. The flag ceremony was followed by the singing of the Games theme song and remarks by Ng Ser Miang, Chairman of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee, and Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee. The Singapore Games were then officially declared opened by S.R. Nathan, the President of Singapore. The Olympic flag was brought on stage by eight Olympians—Tan Howe Liang, Yelena Isinbayeva, Yang Yang, Tan Eng Liang, Frankie Fredericks, Patricia Chan, Tao Li and Sergey Bubka—and handed to eight Singaporean youth athletes before it was raised during the singing of the Olympic Hymn. The Olympic Oath was taken on behalf of all athletes by Caroline Pei Jia Chew, on behalf of all judges by Syed Abdul Kadir, and on behalf of all coaches by David Lim Fong Jock. Finally, a boat in the shape of a phoenix carried the Youth Olympic Flame across Marina Bay and was passed between six Singaporean youth athletes in a relay. Sailor Darren Choy was the final torchbearer and lit the cauldron.

The 32-metre (105 ft) tall cauldron was designed by Dr. Tsai Her-Mann, a fellow and resident inventor of the Singapore Science Centre. Designed to look like a lighthouse, its distinctive feature was a swirling 8 m (26 ft) column of fire dubbed the "vortex flame" or "fire tornado" inside a tube with an opening at the top end. Hot air that could reach 300 °C (572 °F) created around the flame rose, drawing cool air upwards from openings in the base of the tower. Just below the glass-panelled portion of the tower, the cool air was driven through angled guide vanes, thus creating the spiralling movement travelling upwards at 20 m/s (66 ft/s). The cauldron, which had been patented in Singapore and the United States, consumed about 2 MW (2,700 hp) of fuel, less than half the amount used by conventional Olympic cauldrons. Dr. Tsai said he hoped his design could be used for other Olympic events in future. The cauldron was secretly tested at 4:00 am during the two months leading up to the opening ceremony.