Come Together

London's seven years of planning will climax with Friday's Opening Ceremony

Seven years of “meticulous planning come to a spectacular climax” Friday night when the Olympic flame completes its 8,000-mile journey through the U.K. and “the eyes of the world turn to London” for the Opening Ceremony, according to Ashling O’Connor of the LONDON TIMES. The US$42M “visual feast conceived by Danny Boyle, the Oscar-winning director, will set the tone for the Games during the next 17 days and try to evoke the essence of Britishness, as the world’s biggest sports event comes to London for the third time since 1908.” LOCOG Chair Sebastian Coe said the Games were London’s “extraordinary journey,” and described its culmination as “the largest broadcast m ...