Opening Ceremony – General Production Facts  

• The main stage and ramp covers an area of 7,300 square metres, weighs more than 700 tonnes and required two 200 tonne cranes to be lifted into place.
• 6 composers have written more than 2 hours of new Australian music for the Opening Ceremony.
• The music is being delivered via 150 amplifiers linked to 316 loudspeakers.
• The aerial flying system has required more than 6 km of flexible steel wire rope and is 70 metres off the ground at its highest point.
• It can lift 24 performers at one time and move them at 3 metres per second.
• More than 8,800 cues or individual pyrotechnic effects will be fired by 280 computer fields linked by 19 kilometres of data cable.
• There are 2,383 volunteers performers participating in the Opening Ceremony with a further 800 members of the public providing backstage support in areas such as costume, lighting, props, scenery, cast coordination etc.
• Volunteers were cast from 237 audition sessions and each participated in an average of 15 rehearsals over recent months.
• The lighting system uses more than 1,000 fixtures delivering 1.5 million watts of light and more than 1.5 million LEDs have been installed on stage.
• It takes almost 10,000 amps to power the lighting system – the same as for 100 homes.
• The projectors use approximately 1,300 frames of 72mm film.
• 3,500 litres of sunscreen were used by cast and crew during rehearsals!

 The River Event:

• 5km of the river is used for the show with 1km being the ‘stage’.
• The pontoons and flag rafts along the river have a combined length of 920 metres.
• 96 vessels will be used in the Opening Ceremony including 36 illuminated Couta boats.
• 11 km of special submersible power cable and 45km of data cable have been used.
• The River event uses more than 2,500 fluorescent lights and 100 speaker boxes.
• The water effects move 36,000 litres of water per minute when operating at full capacity.
• Approximately 3.5 tonnes of fireworks were discharged along the river.