Once the rehearsals are over and the props packed away Andrew Walsh can often be found wandering through the performance space reflecting on the achievements of the day and the challenges of the next.  Andrew was often seen in the middle of the MCG long after rehearsals for Melbourne’s biggest event of the year.

 With his commitments to the Commonwealth Games complete, Andrew Walsh was in Canberra this month to assist those planning for the centenary of the founding of the national capital.  Addressing the think tank commissioned to come up with ideas for the centenary celebration Andrew spoke about “Capitalising on Major Events”.

Here are some of the ides that Andrew shared with his audience plus further insights into the Melbourne Games ceremonies.

The power of major ceremonies or events is that for a moment they are in the world focus.  This according to Walsh started with the Moscow Olympics where the organisers turned the Games into an audacious marketing event via the use of television to showcase the city and the country through the Games ceremonies.

In the latest of the big ceremonies Athens ceremonies producers drew on a rich history of one of the greatest civilisations of the world and the opening ceremony of the 2004 games took a journey through that Greek history and on to the modern marvel of the DNA double helix.

Melbourne 2006 ceremonies organisers did not need to do an Australian story – that had been done in Sydney.  So the brief was to engage with Melbourne and its entities – hence the duck.

In fact the whole narrative of the Melbourne opening ceremony started with the duck.  The Leunig poem about the duck takes the reader on a journey, and so it was that the boy is taken on a wondrous journey through Melbourne via the duck.

When Andrew approached Michael Leunig for permission to use the poem the cartoonist was delighted if somewhat bemused that it would be of interest even though his ubiquitous duck is loved by Melbournians and fans across the nation.

Measurement of the success of any event is based on, first, how it matched the statutory and legal requirements of the contract and, second, public opinion. Walsh was confident that the Melbourne ceremonies achieved both goals; despite some (not unexpected) media criticism the public acceptance was overwhelming.

Walsh commented that the scale of such events is getting bigger as each is compared to the last big one.

Enterprise and drive are required to develop concepts. The big challenge is to bring the separate interests groups together to build the event. Walsh’s advise to planners of future events is to find a small group of key people with passion and focus and when creating an event of significance do something that no one has done before.  The challenge is to get the right minds with like minds and a good leader.

The narrative is the bottom line for ceremonies and large events.  The easy way to do it is to assemble the usual suspects and get them to perform their latest hits.  It is much harder to commission new works that leave a legacy.  Walsh admits that there is no getting over the pulling power of star quality but suggest that they be used in a different way eg The Church with the MSO and a new song for Deltra Goodrem.

Putting it into perspective – the budget for the 2006 Commonwealth Games ceremonies was $50m (plus $25m - $30m in other infrastructure); the budget for Athens was 150m euros.

Logistics of the Melbourne ceremonies

The Yarra was always going to be a part of the story and it links the MCG to the city.  32 barges were used, along with the fish sculptures, lighting, audio and pyros – quite an extraordinary effort.

The stadium featured the largest temporary stage ever built and it featured vomitories and central lift. 54 semi-trailer loads were required to bring the stage in. The logistic challenge was to get the stage installed in time and then a bigger challenge to get it out again.  The stage was prefabricated into large sections that were lifted into place by two 400 tonne cranes.

Because of the size of the MCG the challenge was to define a performance area and Walsh described the design and construction of this stage as more ambitious than that built for the Athens opening.

The MCG ground is almost circular unlike most arenas that are more oval in shape.  The MCG is 146m x 170m (18,100 sq m) compared to Sydney’s Stadium, which was 120m x 197m for the Olympics.

The event was designed to connect with the city – something that seemed so blindingly obvious as the MCG is located on the fringe of the CBD and so by incorporating the river they effectively doubled the audience as there were as many people lining the Yarra and in the city as there were in the MCG – and those outside got a better overall view of the fireworks.

The project team Andrew worked with included many who have worked with him on past events including many Australia Day celebrations in Sydney, Centenary of Federation, the Rugby World Cup opening, the London Millennium celebrations and the Athens Olympics.  He paid tribute to the synergy between these groups of people who he says could pull off any major event anywhere in the world. They are a very happy, positive team.

This event was documented like no other by the Melbourne Museum and this detailed exhibition with behind the scenes video, interviews, photos, props and costumes is really worth seeing. The Spirit of the Games exhibition runs until 23^rd July 2006. www.melbourne.museum.vic.gov.au

Andrew would like to see this form of documentation become an integral part of the mix for future events.