2000 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
The opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday, 15 September 2000 in Stadium Australia, Sydney, during which the Games were formally opened by then-Governor-General Sir William Deane. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal and ceremonial opening of this international sporting event, including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes, with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture and history. Veteran ceremonies director Ric Birch was the Director of Ceremonies while David Atkins was the Artistic Director and Producer. Its artistic section highlighted several aspects of Australian culture and history, showing Australia's flora and fauna, technology, multiculturalism, and the hopeful moment of reconciliation towards Aboriginal Australians. The ceremony had a cast of 12,687 performers, seen by a stadium audience of around 110,000.
Athletes leaving the stadium at the end of the ceremony
The Awakening segment featured a 32-meter diameter cloth showing a Wandjina spirit – a large head that shows the eyes and nose, but with no mouth.
The Nature segment
The Eternity segment showed thousands of tap dancers.
Stadium Australia is a multi-purpose stadium located in Sydney Olympic Park, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Olympic Stadium, Homebush Stadium or simply the Olympic Stadium, was completed in March 1999 at a cost of A$690 million to host the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Stadium was leased by a private company, the Stadium Australia Group, until the Stadium was sold back to the NSW Government on 1 June 2016 after NSW Premier Michael Baird announced the Stadium was to be redeveloped as a world-class rectangular stadium. The Stadium is owned by Venues NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.
The stadium during the 2022 NRL Grand Final
A rugby league match was the stadium's first event, and has since become the venue's predominant sport, hosting the annual NRL Grand Final since the 1999 edition (pictured).
During the 2000 Summer Olympics, the stadium primarily hosted track and field athletics events.
The main entrance to the stadium