The Aussie party continues, Games get over

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Sydney: The Games are over, and the party's begun. Well the party's been on for quite sometime. Almost from the day, millions of Australians gathered to see the live telecast of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announcement handing them the Games of 2000 seven years ago.

The Games are over but the party continues, this time to mark their grandsuccess. Monday morning, the Australians will go back to work, but doubtless they will be talking about this great fortnight for a long, long time.

Of heroes like Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, the hockeyeroos (women's hockey team), Michael Johnson and Marion Jones, Cathy Freeman and Steve Redgrave. The Aussies love their beer, and they love their sport.

Tonight's closing ceremony was a mere extension of what has been going on for seven years - only the party got more intense over the last fortnight. Theclosing ceremony programme which officially began with the arrival of the marathon runners into the stadium, lasted a full three and a half hours after the medal ceremony of the men's marathon.

There are people who get solemn and somewhat misty eyed as a great party comes to an end, but for the Australians, the end of one party is one party isactually the beginning of another. One celebration leads to another.

Music and dancing, good food and great beer. In between they poke fun at the serious things in life. Like Neill Gladwin, one of the Australia's best known comedians, who kicked off the ceremony by poking fun at serious world of officials and protocols.

And then for the next few hours, the ceremony threaded its way along roller-coaster fun party and the evening ended with the slight flickering of the flame and finally its dying.

There were promises to meet again in Athens and the party continued late into the night, as more Super Dogs were devoured and even more Fosters beers drained.

Tribute to a 17-year-old's idea

The Australians pride themselves on being a friendly country. Almost half a century ago, when Melbourne played host to the Games, they gave a perfect example of that. When the Games came to Melbourne in 1956, those were the days when the Games were beset by a lot of problems - which were only to increase in the future.

But a 17-year-old Chinese-Australian schoolboy, John Ian Wing, wrote a letter to the organsiers suggesting that all athletes be allowed to mingle into one huge party at the closing ceremony.

The organisers took his suggestion and since then the athletes have all marched together as one group, and not as separate nations. Wing himself never came to the closing ceremony, but he started off something that would become the norm for the future.

Misha wept at the closing ceremony in Moscow in 1980, it was American razzmatazz with a specatcular laser show and an apearance of an extra-terrestrial being next to the cauldron at Los Angeles in 1984 and in Seoul in 1988, it was the Korean calm in a moonlit atmosphere.

In Barcelona the Catalan songs and the styles of Dali and Miro made for a great mix. Besides paying a tribute to wrestler Dick Garrard, Australian's oldest living Olympian - now 90 years of age - the Australians paid a fine tribute to the young kid, who changed the Closing Ceremony from being aserious affair to a fun affair by remembering him.

Wing, now 61, is now a restaurant owner in Bucharest and was specially invited for the closing, which interestingly was his first in his life.

The esky phenomenon

In Sydney like everything else it was a great party accompanied by the ubiquitous "Aussie Esky'. The Esky is basically Australian slang for an excursion and it refers to the small box or plastic bag full of picnic stuff and goodies that Australians love to carry when they are off for an outdoor party, wherever that may be.

To make all visitors to part of this Esky phenomenon, each of the 115,000 people at the Olympic Stadium was given a specially designed AudienceParticipation Esky, which included stuff like the programme, souvenir pin, colourful stickers, an Aussie BBQ fly swat, a mirror ball and so on. Basically fun stuff.

The Great Aussie Esky is part of their life. By bringing this phenomenon to the world, the Australians gave the rest of the world its gift of "irreplaceablereceptacle of fun and happiness" as their call their Esky.

To hell with officiousness

To the Aussies seriousness is a no-no. So the ceremony itself began with poking fun at seriousness and Neill Gladwin, their best known comedian came on stage.

Using a lawnmower, it parodies a situation where a serious function is about to begin. Just then the Lawnmower comes in and crashes into the stage, runsthrough the centre of the centre of the band, chases children and runs over TV cables and prevents the dignitary from making a speech.

That section called the Lawnmower Man set the trend for the evening offun. That was followed by the Island Home, a music track composed by Neil Murray, and sung by Christine Anu, one of Australia's best known vocalist.

It is also a reference to the fact that Australia is the world's largest Island with more than 36,000 km of coastline. The routine entry of National Olympic Committee flags, the placards followed by athletes, who came in enmasse from the four entrances.

This time the gold medallists of the Sydney Games led the athletes intothe stadium. This was done just as John Ian Wing had visualised it as a 17-year-old when he wrote to the organisers, that by allowing the athletes to come in en masse, they, "...will make these Games even greater, during the march there will be only one nation.

"War, politics and nationality will be forgotten... They must not march but walk freely and wave to publicly..." Yes, and Wing was there at the Olympic Stadium as a guest of the Sydney Organising Committee for Olympic Games (SOCOG) as John Akhwari of Tanzanian, who finished the marathon despite a bloody and bandaged foot back in 1968.

Akhwari finished more than an hour after the field had completed the race. "My country did not send me to Mexico to start the race. It sent me to finish the race," said Akhwari, who received a huge ovation as he hobbled into the stadium last. That picture of his completing the race is often used by the International Olympic Committee to symbolise the true spirit of Olympism and courage.

The show itself

Through the entire ceremony the stage was constantly changing. The stage, a geo-dome made up of 12 five-sided panels, that can lay flat and rise into adome and be elevated 30 metres into the air.

The stage transformed visually from three-dimensional to flat and back 3-D.The Ballroom, as the designer has called the stage, then showcased the inflatable figures showing Australian obsessions, "McKangaroo", the "BeerMonster" and so on.

All this amidst great rock music. The parade of icons brought on stage Australian's best known names representing slice of their country'sculture.

Pop star Kylie Minogue took on beach culture, Greg Norman the sporting prowess, Elle Macpherson showing high fashion and Paul Hogan, "Crocodile Dundee", brought Aussie culture of outback.

Finally, Kylie with her new single "On a Night like this" gave a perfect finish to the section just before country singer Dusty Slim, joined by the athletes and the audience danced to the unofficial anthem, WaltzingMatilda.

The fireworks, which went off along the length of the Sydney Harbour, ensured the participation of hundreds of thousands more outside the stadium and partying at the Darling Harbour, and completing a truly Australianparty.

India Abroad News Service