The closing ceremony was a story of three parts: The reunion, The Tower of Memory, and, The Carnival.
The Reunion included 200 drummers,200 jumpers on stilts, 2 flying sky drums and 1200 silver bell dancers, with costumes lit by LEDs, and with wagons and ducking stools circling the field as they performed.
The Tower of Memory required a tall structure to appear in the stadium, it telescoped up from the centre of the stage and allowed nearly 400 acrobats to perform complex choreography around it.
The grand finale, The Carnival, required the assembly of singers around the tower’s base while acrobats made dramatic descents. As the performance climaxed, 16 ribbons, each one 2 metres by 30 metres, were deployed from the top of the tower and pulled up to the rigging in the stadium roof, forming a single tree of Olympic torch clouds. As the ribbons were raised, they revealed the acrobats on the tower forming the Beijing Olympic logo on the sides.
Credits
Director of Opening and Closing Ceremonies Department Zhang Heping Director of Opening and Closing Ceremonies Centre Wang Ning Director of Technology Group Yu Jianping Director of Production Lu Jiankang Cultural Advisors to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies Ji Xianlin/ He Zhenliang/ Tang Yijie/ Jin Shangyi/ Wu Zuqiang/ Xu Xiaozhong/ Chen Kaige/ Yves Pepin/ Ric Birch/ Ang Lee/ Quincy Jones Core Creative Team Zhang Yimou/ Zhang Jigang/ Chen Weiya/ Cai Guo-Qiang/ Fan Yue/ Wang Chaoge Assistant to the Core Creative Team Jennifer Wen Ma Producer and Chief Director Zhang Yimou Director Chen Weiya Director of Music Chen Qigang Director of Production Design STUFISH Director of Art and Design Chen Yan Director of Lighting Sha Xiaolan Director of Visual Image Yang Quingsheng Director of Visual and Special Effects Cai Guo-Qiang Director of Costume Eiko Ishioka Director of Makeup Xu Jiahua Director of Stunts Tony Ching Siu Tung Director of Acoustic Design Gary Hardesty
