Vancouver ready to say goodbye with fun-filled show (News Feature)

By Barry Whelan Feb 25, 2010, 19:50 GMT

Vancouver - Vancouver will say goodbye to the winter Games and hand the Olympic flag to the Russian resort of Sochi with a more light-hearted closing ceremony than the opening show.

But organizers are doing their best not to reveal the details of Sunday's party, leaving local media to speculate on the contents of the show and the celebrities lined up for it.

'I think you'll find that the closing is a very Canadian, fun, happy show,' organizing committee chief executive John Furlong said in a media briefing this week.

'You can expect that the closing ceremony will be a warm, happy, fun-filled goodbye.

'It will be a Canadian goodbye, in which we might poke a bit of fun at ourselves, but it will be a very pleasant and easy place to be for the closing ceremonies.'

It seems athletes will have the chance to let their hair down in the globally televised event, which like the opening show will be held indoors at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver.

Reports Thursday quote executive producer David Atkins as saying the three-hour pageant will be a Canadian 'celeb-fest' and feature several well-known Canadian performers and rock bands.

'Canada has an embarrassment of riches in those departments. It's going to be a very contrasting night to the opening ceremony,' he said.

Atkins also produced the Sydney 2000 closing ceremony, which was a celebration of Australian pop culture that starred Kylie Minogue, Men at Work, INXS, Midnight Oil, Olivia Newton-John and Greg Norman.

Atkins told The Globe and Mail there would be more French in the ceremony, but said this had always been planned and was not a reaction to criticism from Quebec over the little French language content in the opening event.

Bryan Adams, Nelly Furtado, kd lang and Sarah McLachlan featured at the opening ceremony, while singer-songwriter Michael Buble and pop singer Shania Twain are among those tipped for the closing show.

According to the Globe and Mail, there are rumours Neil Young will perform while other big Canadian acts who haven't made an appearance at the Games yet include Avril Lavigne, the Tragically Hip and Rush. Celine Dion's publicist has, however, said she won't participate.

Canadian Olympic sprint gold medalist Donovan Bailey has been in town, and Canadian-American actor Michael J. Fox, who grew up in nearby Burnaby, is 'a sentimental favourite', it said.

Traditionally the Olympic flag will be handed over to the next winter Games hosts, a duty to be performed by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. Sochi will have a segment of about eight minutes near the end of the ceremony to promote the 2014 Games and exhibit Russian culture.

Despite a technical malfunction which prevented one of the columns of the cauldron lifting at the opening ceremony, Atkins said it would make no difference to the technological elements of the closing show.

'To actually remove those elements from the ceremony would remove some fabulous moments and I don't think it's worth doing that,' he said.

With the ceremony beginning at 5.30 pm (0130 GMT) and the men's ice-hockey final - perhaps featuring Canada - starting at 12.15 pm in Vancouver, plus the prospect of another protest by Olympic protesters, city officials are expecting huge crowds and a busy day.

The following day will then see a mass exodus of officials, media representatives, athletes and tourists, as Vancouver says farewell and readies itself for the Paralympics beginning on March 12.