The Paralympics have come to an end đŸ˜¦ Well done to all the ‘Superhuman’ athletes, from all over the world!!
I have mixed feelings about the Paralympic Closing Ceremony, but I think it’s all a matter of taste…
I loved the overall theme of ‘The Festival of the Flame’ – quite Pagan, and with some of the symbols scorched into the grass it did take on a Pagan quality. I loved the Steampunk costumes and contraptions (giving me outfit and cardmaking ideas…), I LOVED the scrap metal carousel animals – WANT!!! (what I would give to have a garden big enough to display one of them in, maybe when I win the lottery…) and I really, really want some pixel poi too… The British Paraorchestra was just amazing – the commentators on Channel 4 said they “could listen and watch them all night”, and so could I.
However, I don’t quite understand why after the initial part with the actors and the trucks it became a Coldplay gig? I love Coldplay, and would like to attend one of their gigs, but when organisers were able to find SO MANY great British bands for the Olympics Closing Ceremony, why was the Paralymics almost exclusively done by Coldplay? Also I didn’t get why Jay Z was there at all, Rihanna performed some great songs, but as far as I could tell Jay Z just shouted incomprehensively for two songs and seemed really pleased with himself… I was expecting more musical variety (in terms of bands) instead of ‘Coldplay and friends’ and I was expecting that the dancers would be given more time to shine, performing to instrumentals so we could appreciate how fabulous they are instead of being a sideshow to the Coldplay tunes.
I’m glad the artistic director said nothing should be read into any of the costumes/themes/characters, because there is no real meaning, it’s just exuberance – what should be expected for the closing ceremony of such a great spectacle, because it was a bit random, but I liked it.
rustyblue85 