The opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics was held on February 12, 2010, beginning at 6:00 pm PST (02:00 UTC, February 13) at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This was the first Olympic opening ceremony to be held indoors. It was directed by David Atkins.
The event was officially opened by Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, the representative of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada. The opening ceremony was dedicated by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) to Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger who had died earlier in the day in a training run. An audience of 61,600 was in attendance at the venue, and there were an estimated 4,500 performers.
Production
The production's director was David Atkins, who directed the Sydney 2000 Olympic and 2006 Doha Asian Games ceremonies. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies had a combined budget of $48.5 million (it received $20 million () funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage while VANOC contributed the rest). Much of the instrumental music for the ceremony was written by Dave Pierce, Gavin Greenaway, and Donovan Seidle.
The music during the ceremony came from the live on-stage orchestra, conducted by Pierce.
On December 15, 2010, John Furlong, the CEO of VANOC revealed that Celine Dion had been contracted to sing the national anthem at the Opening Ceremony. However, when she became pregnant she cancelled the performance and was subsequently replaced by 16-year-old Nikki Yanofsky. In addition, Furlong also revealed that "a famous Quebec composer" was contracted to provide musical elements to the show. That composer, whom he would not name, backed out of arrangement months before the Games over what he termed "philosophical differences." As a result, the artist refused to allow VANOC access to his music's rights and the organizing committee had to unwind part of the ceremony. There is speculation within the media that the Opening Ceremony's cultural show finale titled "We Are More," featuring slam poetry by Shane Koyczan, served as a last minute replacement for the canceled segment featuring the Quebec composer's music. VANOC had also requested the Cirque du Soleil to perform several aerial stunts, however it opted not to as it was already stretched with many U.S. productions.
Program
Dedication
At 5:59 (PST), a PA system announced that the opening ceremony would be dedicated in memory of the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who had died in a training accident earlier that day.
Opening section
Giant video screens showed Canadian snowboarder Johnny Lyall sliding down a mountain slope, with the dates and locations of previous Winter Olympic games were recalled in voiceover. As the 1988 games in Calgary were mentioned, Lyall passed through a row of torchbearers in the shape of the Canadian symbol: the maple leaf. When Vancouver 2010 is announced, the video cuts to live footage of Lyall snowboarding off of a jump and through a set of Olympic Rings inside the stadium, while snow and ice exploded from the rings, and him welcoming the crowd.
National anthem
A guard of honour mounted by the RCMP marched the Canadian Flag to the flagpost. There a guard of honour composed of Canadian Forces members raised the flag. Nikki Yanofsky performed an arrangement of the national anthem, "O Canada", singing in English and French.
Welcome by the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada
The First Nations in whose traditional territories the games were held - the Squamish Nation, Musqueam Indian Band, Lil'wat First Nation, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nation - were recognized as heads of state and seated directly behind the Canadian Governor General and the Prime Minister. Four Coast Salish welcome poles were raised from the centre of the stadium, and greetings were given to the crowd (and the world) by members of the Four Host First Nations in their respective languages as well as English and French. The arms of the poles were raised in a traditional gesture of greeting to welcome the athletes and the world. Following the greetings, groups of dancers from other main culture-regions of Indigenous peoples in Canada were introduced, including the Métis Nation and the Inuit, as well as the Peoples of the Northwest, the Peoples of the Plains and the Peoples of the East and took places around the welcome poles and a large drum surface between them, forming a welcome circle to prepare for the forthcoming Parade of the Nations and danced traditional welcoming dances as the athletes paraded in.