In 2000, the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games was the biggest television event of all time. Marking a new evolutionary stage in Olympic Ceremonies, it was the most complex ever attempted, and the first to be based around a narrative. The show connected deeply and personally with live and broadcast audiences, and cemented Sydney’s stature as one of the world’s great cities.
At the heart of this unforgettable production was a landmark segment that brought First Nations peoples together from the length and breadth of the continent for the first time in front of a global audience estimated at 4 billion people. This was the largest Indigenous cultural presentation ever staged in Australia with over 1000 performers from 20 regions and over 100 mobs.
The Opening also established Australia as one of the most multicultural nations on earth, by involving cultural groups from over 60 different countries in a lavish and stirring display which celebrated the values of Olympism
As Executive Producer and Artistic Director, David Atkins lead the creative team of over 50 Australian directors, designers, composers and choreographers and successfully inspired and engaged a volunteer cast of over 20,000 people across both Ceremonies.
For DAE’s creative and production work on the Ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Artistic Director David Atkins was awarded a Gold Olympic Pin by IOC President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, who said it was the most beautiful Ceremony he had ever seen.
