London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony

The London 2012 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony will start at 21pm (UTC+1) on 12 August 2012. The creative director and choreographer of the ceremony is Kim Gavin. The overall budget for all four Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies is £80 million.

Featuring more than 4,100 performers, including 3,500 adult volunteers and 380 schoolchildren from the six east London Host Boroughs.

The athletes will enter and the volunteers will be thanked. There will then be ‘A Symphony of British Music’ to celebrate the fact that music has been one of Britain’s strongest cultural exports over the last 50 years.

A total cast of 15,000 will take part in the Olympic and Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and will be watched by an estimated audience of 750 million.

At the end of the Ceremony, there will be a handover to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympic Games, and the Olympic Flame will be extinguished, signalling the end of the Olympic Games.

March of the athletes

The flag bearers of the participating delegations enter the Stadium in single file. At the Closing Ceremony, athletes march together, not by nationality. This is a tradition that began at the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games and is a way of bringing the athletes of the world together as 'one nation'.

Flags

Three national flags are hoisted on flagpoles one at a time, while the corresponding national anthems are played: the flag of Greece to honor the birthplace of the Olympic Games, the flag of the Host Nation (UK), and the flag of the country hosting the next Summer Olympic Games (Brazil).

Speeches

The Mayor of the Host City joins the President of the IOC on the rostrum and gives him back the flag. The President of the IOC then symbolically presents this to the Mayor of the next Host City of the Olympic Games, before making a speech declaring the Games closed.

The Flame

The Olympic Flame, which has been burning in the Cauldron since the opening of the Games, is then extinguished that a poignant and moving moment for all those involved in the Games and the audience at large.

Creative team

A host of world-class British directors and producers are leading the artistic team to stage the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the London 2012 Games.

Performers

A total cast of 15,000 will take part in the London 2012 Opening and Closing Ceremonies, which will be watched by a huge global audience.