(ATR) In a move to save millions from the budget of the London Olympics, a cauldron towering over the Olympic Stadium will be missing during the Games.
Around the Rings is told by sources familiar with the situation that the decision not to construct a cauldron visible throughout the Olympic Park was influenced by plans to reconfigure the stadium after the Games to a smaller capacity, as well as budgetary.
IOC coordination commission chair Denis Oswald tells ATR there definitely is a cauldron, but confirms it will only be visible within the Olympic Stadium.
The absence of a cauldron visible from outside the stadium is a first for the Summer Games of the recent era.
In Vancouver in 2010, a cauldron was lit inside the BC Place domed arena and extinguished after opening ceremony. Another cauldron was simultaneously lit in a public plaza that remained on view throughout the Games and has been ceremonially relit since 2010.
No more clues about the cauldron emerged in comments posted on-line after thousands attended the technical rehearsal Monday night for the ceremony. Those attending saw the twitter hashtag #savethesurprise on an electric sign, and so far, nobody has spoiled the moment.
Who will be the final torchbearer in the stadium also remains closely guarded, unlikely to have been revealed during the technical rehearsal last night anyway.
One source tells ATR that computer-generated effects will be a "spectacular" element of the three-hour ceremony.
It is not expected that London will go to the extreme posited in an April Fool spoof published by Around the Rings in 2007. In the article, ATR suggested that methane gas recycled from the Olympic Park remediation would be used to power the cauldron. Read the archived story here.
Written and reported in London by Ed Hula
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