The Opening Ceremony - as witnessed from the Athletes Village VOC

The day of the Opening ceremony was probably the most important and most exhausting of all the days of the Games for the Athletes Village staff. For both Games staff and volunteers it was all hands to the pumps and in the Village Operations Centre (VOC) especially the day was one planned with military precision and put into action by the duty managers. Volunteers were not normally rostered to work night shifts but in order to allow all of the duty managers to be on duty for the ceremony, I , for the very first time in my life, worked a night shift. This entailed watching baseball and chatting to the police and security staff until the athletes started to re-emerge at about 5.00am!

Later in the day, after a bit of sleep, I was back on duty. An enormous logistical exercise was put in place to get all 5,650 athletes and officials out of the village at the right time in the right order and then, after their participation in the ceremony itself, getting them all back in with the minimum of fuss and delay but still in a secure and safe manner.

Normally, three entrances were used for the village but another two temporary entrances were used to get all of the participants onto the correct bus at the correct time so they appeared in the City of Manchester stadium at the right time in the right order without having to stand around waiting for ages.

Once the Village had emptied, the staff were able to watch the opening ceremony on TV in the Bistro Bar. Or at least up until the point at which the athletes left because it was then back to work to man the entrances to ensure only correctly accredited athletes and officials got back into the village.

This meant I missed the end of the ceremony. For most of the other volunteers this was not a problem as they had been to the full dress rehearsal two nights previously. I, however, had to work an evening shift that evening so missed the whole end of the show. We did get a feel for the firework display because standing down by the transport mall checking the athletes back in, we could hear the fireworks and see the glowing and flashing in the night sky without being able to actually see the fireworks.

All of the athletes seemed to have had a fantastic time at the ceremony. I know, being Welsh, I am biased but I thought the Welsh team were the smartest of the lot in their red blazers and dark green trousers / skirts. As for the white shell suits worn by the English team - the least said the better!