Manchester's big parade
Manchester celebrated the opening of theCommonwealth Games last night with lights, fireworks, rappers, breakdancers, unashamed populism and a sequence of songs with cheerfully meaningless words.
The ceremony was described by organisers as "pomp without pomposity".
It began with a wallop on a big drum presented by Malaysia, host of the 1998 games, and ended with a three-minute pyrotechnic barrage which woke every dog and baby in nearby Gorton, Harpurhey and Openshaw.
Presided over by the Queen, the spectacular began at dusk and ran for more than two noisy and colourful hours.
Featuring 5,500 performers including pop band S Club and Salford tenor Russell Watson, the show "tapped into the cultural currents that shape the lives of Mancunians" and celebrated "the capacity of ordinary Manchester citizens to do extraordinary things".
One of the show's tricks was to turn some of those citizens into water sculptures and water fountains, a risky thing in a city renowned for the frequency of its downpours. (Organisers had wisely stocked up with more than 25,000 wet weather ponchos.)
As 38,000 spectators packed the City of Manchester stadium, games organisers announced that 90% of event tickets had been sold, twice as many as at any previous Commonwealth Games. They anticipate that Manchester could beat the record of 94% of tickets sold for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. More than 30,000 tickets have been snapped up this week.
"We expect the rush to continue and to carry on setting records," said Niels de Vos, the games' commercial director.
There were two breaks with tradition last night. The dignitaries arrived in "international transport icons", or black cabs as they are known to you and me ("East Manchester at this time of night, mate? You've got to be joking... "). Prince Edward duly turned up in a taxi but his mother and father opted for something more opulent.
The other break with tradition was the decision to allow the athletes, once they had marched in ceremonial order, to mingle and bop together in the middle of the stadium in celebration of Manchester's alleged reputation as the party capital of Britain.
The Queen's relay baton, which has travelled 63,000 miles through 27 countries by boat, plane, horse and penny farthing, was set to sail into the arena over the south stand beneath a 26ft-diameter helium-filled balloon and gently come to earth after hovering over 5,000 athletes and officials.
It was carried around the track by a team of athletes including Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey, solo yachtswoman Ellen McArthur, medal-bagging oarsman Steve Redgrave and (pregnant) heptathlete Denise Lewis.
The baton was handed to the Queen by Kirsty Howard, six, a Manchester girl with a terminal heart condition who was given six weeks to live two and a half years ago. She was accompanied by the sportsman who has cited her as his inspiration, David Beckham.
The parade of athletes was headed by Malaysia and tailed by England, which, with 441 athletes, boasts the biggest team.
The flag of St George was carried by Olympic 200m silver medallist Darren Campbell, the red dragon of Wales by wheelchair athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson and the flag of Montserrat by high jumper Gavin Lee: he had to carry it because his team has only one member.
The England team included bowls player Ruth Small, who is blind and competes with the help of her husband. "I challenge any sighted player to play me at midnight," she has said.
The numbers
· Some 7,000 performers in opening and closing ceremonies, which cost £12m
· Athletes' parade featured almost 5,000 contestants and officials from 72 nations
· Queen's jubilee baton has been carried through 27 nations on a 63,000-mile trip
·Athletics is the biggest-seller, then the rugby sevens,
· 10,000 volunteers on duty to help - 237 of them aged over 70 - 6,100 jobs created and £600m invested
· 150,000 condoms sent to athletes - about 37 each
The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and Clarifications column, Wednesday July 31 2002
In our report of the opening celebrations for the Commonwealth Games (Games on: Manchester's big parade, page 1, July 26), we said that the heptathlete, Denise Lewis, was pregnant. She gave birth to her 7lb 4oz daughter, Lauren, on April 3.