Fri 1st December, Opening Ceremony – Big Old D’oh In Doha (Or Doha II – Doharder)
(Photo's - as appeared before publish: The Prince, taken off on of the screens by me on the Field Of Play, The Qatary Athletes make their entrance, The Hero Horse & Prince are raised up by The Sun Stage, Storm Clouds visibly rolling across the City on their way to the Stadium, Super Tim & Super Kev (!), Adam & his old boss Andy from Royal Opera House UK.)Well, today sucked. Easily the worst day of the entire 5 weeks so far. By lunchish there was huge black clouds everywhere and the forecast was for rain from midday thru until nine pm. With most of the rain scheduled to fall between 3pm & 6pm. It was an ominous feeling – knowing that year’s of planning & hundreds of thousands and probably a whole lot more dollars was looking in jeopardy due to rain in the desert! We were all on the 1330 bus and on the way in it started to trickle in – with a few flashes of lightning.
When we got to the Stadium it was in various levels of chaos. Every hour or so there was an announcement as to the weather situation. DAE was getting regular updates from the local US Army base and what needed to be done was changed as regularly as the updates were coming in. The main factor was the wind. As Doha is dead flat with no real valleys or buildings to deflect or channel the wind, it could pretty much do as it wanted. It was quite strong and was whipping the major storm this way and then changing it’s course severely all in a matter of minutes.
As there had been some rain overnight, the first call of the day was to go up and check our comms and spots were actually working and getting power. This suited myself & Kev as we wanted to get a few daylight shots from our positions and also wanted to test the theory of our Super Kev & Super Tim idea - cape, mask & all! After we’d checked mine and we were heading southwards to Kev’s possie the rain started coming in harder than the drizzle that had been hanging around for 2 hours. Despite this, we still took the Super K & T pic’s – completes the whole set now! Heading down the South end of the Arch was hard going. As we’ve been climbing up the North end, we’re used to the angle of the stairs but coming down the other side, especially when wet was a factor, it was actually quite difficult as the lean and the width of the steps were all reversed! As I’m writing this, I hope I remember to post a photo of the angle of the Arch so you can see what I’m talking about.
We walked back thru the inside of the Stadium and as we walked past the underside of the Eastern Stage, water was literally pouring in and it was a mass of people in various stages of wetness and with anything thrown onto provide some possible protection from the water – garbage bags, tarps, newspaper - frantically trying to get the water outside and away form the numerous set pieces & props that were stored in the area. Chatter over radio was depressing – all about ‘this new leak’, ‘so and so’s flooded’, ‘power out here’ etc. We got back to the Canteen and people were running everywhere – this is 3hrs before pregame stuff was scheduled to start. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned in earlier entries, because Doha only has 2 days of rain a year (!) there’s no infrastructure in regards to drainage. Pools of water were forming out on the Field Of Play, same as the roads and access areas outside the Stadium.
We were summoned to a meeting to get first hand info on the current state of affairs. 30% of the show had already been cut – most of the flying stuff, the really cool stuff, with so much more in doubt. Certain Set LX pieces were going out but would not be plugged up – 3 phase and a whole lotta water doesn’t mix well! We were also told that the show would be changing throughout the night as the weather allowed. We were given codes that would be given out over radio if we needed to evacuate or if it was a complete cancellation etc. “Would Read Team Leader please switch to Ch1” etc. At the moment the show had legs, but they were wobbly. Lightning strikes then came into play as a lot of the set pieces are complete metal structures. Myself, Kev & Jess & Aziz (who op from on top of Lucy), were handed over to OH&S in regards to if we went up or had to come down. If we saw any lightning of any kind we were to abandon positions, no matter where we were in the show!
We ran into some of the Bytecraft girls and they and the Procon gang were not having fun. Completely water logged units were being dropped off for repair, basically dried out and then sent upwards again. Not a happy place for those guys. I know what was happening from the LX side but you could tell that everyone was hurting. No one was angry or shitty – everyone had a smile on their face and you could see the resolve in everyone’s face to get it up and running, any way that was possible. It was one of the tightest feelings of ‘We’re in this together” and mateship that I’ve ever experienced.
By the time preshow entertainment came around it was pouring and god bless the crowd – in they came. Most of them with no wet weather gear at all. The action commenced and they loved it. They were cheering like crazy for the Orry section, loved the dancers and this was all stuff that had no tricks or anything. Azim, who was operating on the Field, couldn’t get his dome to refire and by 1830 he was out. Not going to get working and was way, way down on the priority list. 4 weeks of rehearsals for nothing. This is where the headspace kicked in of “I don’t care how wet, sick or other I get, I’m going to do my gig” – even if it meant lashing myself to the scaff and raising a fist and yelling at the sky!
It was wet up there and the jacket was a safe haven. I had doubts about the quality of the workmanship but it held. Upper body was dry but waist downwards was soaked. We’d been told to fire up and partially unwrap the domes but to not fully unwrap until just before our first cue. Nigh on 7pm when the real deal was due to start, myself, Kev, Jess & Aziz were ordered to power down, do a full wrap and descend. My heart sank. I wanted to stay but knew that if someone was making that call that it was warranted. Sure enough, bout a minute later, massive flash of lightning and a huge thunder clap. Wished the boys & girls the best of luck and did my standard ‘Happy Hunting’ call and turned my cans off and switched back to radio.
The four of us met up in the Krankenhaus not wanting it to be the end of the Opening for us. I prob would have cried. The radio chatter was insane – and we were only on the LX loop. It was literally like a movie scene when a ship has been attacked and people are yelling for systems checks, reports, divert power etc. There were lights that were having their breaker reset moments before they were due to be on & you heard “261, 267, 274 & 279 didn’t fire”, “Half of LX16 just went out”, “We got water seeping into Dimmer Room 12”. Carnage, absolute carnage.
Kev & I were determined to do something for the gig. We got in touch with Philby and told him to deploy us as he saw fit. We went off to the Eastern Stage and started helping shuffling stuff around and just getting in where we could. We ended up on the Field Of Play when the Seekers boat enters. By this stage the rain had eased – was still there but nothing as it had been for the last 2hrs. Managed to get a few photos and stood there wishing the Pearl Fishing Boats to fly up and over the Eastern side of the Stadium….nothing. Then there was the call on radio for Jess, Aziz, Kev & I to return to our possies. Looked at where we were at and figured that we had minimal time to harness back up and get up the Arch before the ‘Caravans Of Asia’ sequence commenced. I tell you what, the four of us have NEVER gotten into position that quickly before. I was first. Ripped the plastic off the front of the dome and tore a hole in the side so I could reach my iris, checked my sights and chimed in with “11 on cans”, to resounding cheers, followed moments later with “Kev here” and 5mins later, just into the Caravans, Jess & Aziz were back. You could hear the relief in Prem’s voice to now have 15 of 16 domes back! For the first hour, they’d been completely winging it with Adam & Paul having to chop and change in an attempt to cover the Eastern Side’s plot.
It was good to be back and for those of you who managed to catch the highlights package, the Caravans section was the only section of the Cultural part that ran at 100% - and this included all the screens/lifts raising and then revealing their ‘animal’ at the correct time! 1st time ever – a minor but oh so important victory! We then stayed up there for the rest of the show – despite the rain coming back quite heavily. And the wind! I have never operated, and prob never will, operate a dome in such conditions again! I basically got my wish of lashing myself in position. I physically had to put my full body weight against the dome to keep it in position as the wind would either be pushing it against me or trying to rip it from my hands – and let me tell you, there Lycians were’nt exactly lightweight! All the while I’m trying to wipe water from my eyes and actually see what it is I’m actually doming!
I won’t bore you now with details of what else didn’t happen but it was disastrous! The highlight of the night was the Hero Horse – myself & Kev were down as normal (just wetter!) and standing on the Field Of Play & at this stage we didn’t know if they were running with the Prince or the Runner…! As the Sun Stage revealed, there was the Prince! He rode up to near where his father was sitting, accepted the flame and then revealed his identity – up until that point the Emir had no idea that it was his son who was to have the honour of lighting the Cauldron (no one at this point knew about the Cauldorn)! The Prince had been sneaking out for months to attend rehearsals with the Cowboys!
I tell you what, I have never felt so much will be directed at any one thing before! It was lightly drizzling and as the Prince made the final turn and charged at the ramp, flame in hand, all the DAE staff on the Field (& I’m assuming everywhere else) took in a deep breath and just held it! The Prince rocketed up the first section – cleaner than he ever had before and commenced on the steeper section…. Half way up the ramp, the horse stumbles, rears a little and the Prince, who’s holding on for dear life, steadies and then, basically lying vertically, gets the horse to steady and coaxes it up the rest of the way! Well, there was a huge roar from the crowd but I can tell you that the roar from the DAE Staff was massive. It was a moment of huge relief and people hugging each other left right and centre! I had one guy speaking/yelling what could have been Spanish, hug me and kiss me on both cheeks! It was a feeling of massive relief as we all needed that moment to happen. The crowd went bezerk and kept on getting louder as the fire works began!
I went and sat in the office waiting for the others to get free from their positions, slowly forming a small pool at my feet (!), when Philby came in and stated “I’ve never seen an entire fucking rig just commit suicide within two hours.” Then he stated something unpleasant he had planned to do to the horse or Prince if they hadn’t made it up the ramp! It was such a devastating feeling – and I’ve only been involved for 6 weeks. As everyone arrived at the office, there were a few smiles but they felt kinda forced. We were glad it happens but nobody wants to watch something fall apart in front of their eyes.
Bout 20mins after the event had finished the rain just came bucketing down! Just as we all were leaving to catch the bus. So, sad, depressed and on the drier side of wet, we trudged out into a rainstorm in the desert, to catch a bus home to a party that not many of us felt like attending!
Just to fill you in on a few other facts from the night – of the 26 TV cameras covering the gig, by the end, only 12 were working! The bus drivers went on strike late in the afternoon which meant that around ¼ of the volunteer staff didn’t arrive until after the Qatar Flare Flag – which I watched from thru the window in the Krankenhaus. The athletes caused a mini riot at the end of the gig – they had been led to where they needed to cross to get to where buses were due to take them home, with some starting competition at 0600 the next morn, only to find the buses not there because the Emir had suddenly changed his mind and decided to leave the Stadium by a different road so there was no access! His Security detail had closed the road – effectively meaning that 2 of the 4 exits out of Kahlifa (for the 40,000 odd punters too) were now unusable! Remember, this all happened in the desert, during a massive rain storm, so, with only about 25 odd SM’s assigned to herd and then get the athletes on the buses, they were way outnumbered and when the buses were seen parked about two blocks away, they rioted, threw some punches at each other and ran for the buses!
When we did arrive home, we walked into Al Baker Gardens to find that the streets were rivers! Flooded! We were certain that there would be massive leaks inside but luckily there wasn’t but the entire street, bar a few islands (gotta love the ‘evenness’ of Qatarian workmanship), was ankle deep in water! I went up and had a shower first in a vain attempt to get the blood circulating again and to also escape the first 20mins of how crap it’d been etc. I know it’d been crap and didn’t need to discuss it further – the was a chunk of booze to get thru and for me, I can only really do that if there’s laughter etc. in the air. Most people disappeared for a little before arriving, some quiet reflection.
It ended up being a good night – well, we were on The Stoop! We realised that you could open up both sections of the front door & not just the section we’d been using for the last 4 weeks – didn’t take us too long! Therefore, this easily extended the Stoop inside and provided much shelter from the rain! Only 3 people ended up falling down the front stairs – marble does get mighty slippery when wet – through out the night and somehow, one of them wasn’t me! Twas a raucous night but nothing that you haven’t heard about already! It prob would have been a very different vibe had the rain not been around but it was a great night, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as if we all just sat around with our chins in our hands, it had just been a LONG day the rain continued to fall!
We bid our last guests, The Cowboys our farewells around 0600 & sent them off to bed with a resounding rendition of ‘Glory Days’ by Bruce Springsteen, finally closed the front door and crashed ourselves!
When we got to the Stadium it was in various levels of chaos. Every hour or so there was an announcement as to the weather situation. DAE was getting regular updates from the local US Army base and what needed to be done was changed as regularly as the updates were coming in. The main factor was the wind. As Doha is dead flat with no real valleys or buildings to deflect or channel the wind, it could pretty much do as it wanted. It was quite strong and was whipping the major storm this way and then changing it’s course severely all in a matter of minutes.
As there had been some rain overnight, the first call of the day was to go up and check our comms and spots were actually working and getting power. This suited myself & Kev as we wanted to get a few daylight shots from our positions and also wanted to test the theory of our Super Kev & Super Tim idea - cape, mask & all! After we’d checked mine and we were heading southwards to Kev’s possie the rain started coming in harder than the drizzle that had been hanging around for 2 hours. Despite this, we still took the Super K & T pic’s – completes the whole set now! Heading down the South end of the Arch was hard going. As we’ve been climbing up the North end, we’re used to the angle of the stairs but coming down the other side, especially when wet was a factor, it was actually quite difficult as the lean and the width of the steps were all reversed! As I’m writing this, I hope I remember to post a photo of the angle of the Arch so you can see what I’m talking about.
We walked back thru the inside of the Stadium and as we walked past the underside of the Eastern Stage, water was literally pouring in and it was a mass of people in various stages of wetness and with anything thrown onto provide some possible protection from the water – garbage bags, tarps, newspaper - frantically trying to get the water outside and away form the numerous set pieces & props that were stored in the area. Chatter over radio was depressing – all about ‘this new leak’, ‘so and so’s flooded’, ‘power out here’ etc. We got back to the Canteen and people were running everywhere – this is 3hrs before pregame stuff was scheduled to start. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned in earlier entries, because Doha only has 2 days of rain a year (!) there’s no infrastructure in regards to drainage. Pools of water were forming out on the Field Of Play, same as the roads and access areas outside the Stadium.
We were summoned to a meeting to get first hand info on the current state of affairs. 30% of the show had already been cut – most of the flying stuff, the really cool stuff, with so much more in doubt. Certain Set LX pieces were going out but would not be plugged up – 3 phase and a whole lotta water doesn’t mix well! We were also told that the show would be changing throughout the night as the weather allowed. We were given codes that would be given out over radio if we needed to evacuate or if it was a complete cancellation etc. “Would Read Team Leader please switch to Ch1” etc. At the moment the show had legs, but they were wobbly. Lightning strikes then came into play as a lot of the set pieces are complete metal structures. Myself, Kev & Jess & Aziz (who op from on top of Lucy), were handed over to OH&S in regards to if we went up or had to come down. If we saw any lightning of any kind we were to abandon positions, no matter where we were in the show!
We ran into some of the Bytecraft girls and they and the Procon gang were not having fun. Completely water logged units were being dropped off for repair, basically dried out and then sent upwards again. Not a happy place for those guys. I know what was happening from the LX side but you could tell that everyone was hurting. No one was angry or shitty – everyone had a smile on their face and you could see the resolve in everyone’s face to get it up and running, any way that was possible. It was one of the tightest feelings of ‘We’re in this together” and mateship that I’ve ever experienced.
By the time preshow entertainment came around it was pouring and god bless the crowd – in they came. Most of them with no wet weather gear at all. The action commenced and they loved it. They were cheering like crazy for the Orry section, loved the dancers and this was all stuff that had no tricks or anything. Azim, who was operating on the Field, couldn’t get his dome to refire and by 1830 he was out. Not going to get working and was way, way down on the priority list. 4 weeks of rehearsals for nothing. This is where the headspace kicked in of “I don’t care how wet, sick or other I get, I’m going to do my gig” – even if it meant lashing myself to the scaff and raising a fist and yelling at the sky!
It was wet up there and the jacket was a safe haven. I had doubts about the quality of the workmanship but it held. Upper body was dry but waist downwards was soaked. We’d been told to fire up and partially unwrap the domes but to not fully unwrap until just before our first cue. Nigh on 7pm when the real deal was due to start, myself, Kev, Jess & Aziz were ordered to power down, do a full wrap and descend. My heart sank. I wanted to stay but knew that if someone was making that call that it was warranted. Sure enough, bout a minute later, massive flash of lightning and a huge thunder clap. Wished the boys & girls the best of luck and did my standard ‘Happy Hunting’ call and turned my cans off and switched back to radio.
The four of us met up in the Krankenhaus not wanting it to be the end of the Opening for us. I prob would have cried. The radio chatter was insane – and we were only on the LX loop. It was literally like a movie scene when a ship has been attacked and people are yelling for systems checks, reports, divert power etc. There were lights that were having their breaker reset moments before they were due to be on & you heard “261, 267, 274 & 279 didn’t fire”, “Half of LX16 just went out”, “We got water seeping into Dimmer Room 12”. Carnage, absolute carnage.
Kev & I were determined to do something for the gig. We got in touch with Philby and told him to deploy us as he saw fit. We went off to the Eastern Stage and started helping shuffling stuff around and just getting in where we could. We ended up on the Field Of Play when the Seekers boat enters. By this stage the rain had eased – was still there but nothing as it had been for the last 2hrs. Managed to get a few photos and stood there wishing the Pearl Fishing Boats to fly up and over the Eastern side of the Stadium….nothing. Then there was the call on radio for Jess, Aziz, Kev & I to return to our possies. Looked at where we were at and figured that we had minimal time to harness back up and get up the Arch before the ‘Caravans Of Asia’ sequence commenced. I tell you what, the four of us have NEVER gotten into position that quickly before. I was first. Ripped the plastic off the front of the dome and tore a hole in the side so I could reach my iris, checked my sights and chimed in with “11 on cans”, to resounding cheers, followed moments later with “Kev here” and 5mins later, just into the Caravans, Jess & Aziz were back. You could hear the relief in Prem’s voice to now have 15 of 16 domes back! For the first hour, they’d been completely winging it with Adam & Paul having to chop and change in an attempt to cover the Eastern Side’s plot.
It was good to be back and for those of you who managed to catch the highlights package, the Caravans section was the only section of the Cultural part that ran at 100% - and this included all the screens/lifts raising and then revealing their ‘animal’ at the correct time! 1st time ever – a minor but oh so important victory! We then stayed up there for the rest of the show – despite the rain coming back quite heavily. And the wind! I have never operated, and prob never will, operate a dome in such conditions again! I basically got my wish of lashing myself in position. I physically had to put my full body weight against the dome to keep it in position as the wind would either be pushing it against me or trying to rip it from my hands – and let me tell you, there Lycians were’nt exactly lightweight! All the while I’m trying to wipe water from my eyes and actually see what it is I’m actually doming!
I won’t bore you now with details of what else didn’t happen but it was disastrous! The highlight of the night was the Hero Horse – myself & Kev were down as normal (just wetter!) and standing on the Field Of Play & at this stage we didn’t know if they were running with the Prince or the Runner…! As the Sun Stage revealed, there was the Prince! He rode up to near where his father was sitting, accepted the flame and then revealed his identity – up until that point the Emir had no idea that it was his son who was to have the honour of lighting the Cauldron (no one at this point knew about the Cauldorn)! The Prince had been sneaking out for months to attend rehearsals with the Cowboys!
I tell you what, I have never felt so much will be directed at any one thing before! It was lightly drizzling and as the Prince made the final turn and charged at the ramp, flame in hand, all the DAE staff on the Field (& I’m assuming everywhere else) took in a deep breath and just held it! The Prince rocketed up the first section – cleaner than he ever had before and commenced on the steeper section…. Half way up the ramp, the horse stumbles, rears a little and the Prince, who’s holding on for dear life, steadies and then, basically lying vertically, gets the horse to steady and coaxes it up the rest of the way! Well, there was a huge roar from the crowd but I can tell you that the roar from the DAE Staff was massive. It was a moment of huge relief and people hugging each other left right and centre! I had one guy speaking/yelling what could have been Spanish, hug me and kiss me on both cheeks! It was a feeling of massive relief as we all needed that moment to happen. The crowd went bezerk and kept on getting louder as the fire works began!
I went and sat in the office waiting for the others to get free from their positions, slowly forming a small pool at my feet (!), when Philby came in and stated “I’ve never seen an entire fucking rig just commit suicide within two hours.” Then he stated something unpleasant he had planned to do to the horse or Prince if they hadn’t made it up the ramp! It was such a devastating feeling – and I’ve only been involved for 6 weeks. As everyone arrived at the office, there were a few smiles but they felt kinda forced. We were glad it happens but nobody wants to watch something fall apart in front of their eyes.
Bout 20mins after the event had finished the rain just came bucketing down! Just as we all were leaving to catch the bus. So, sad, depressed and on the drier side of wet, we trudged out into a rainstorm in the desert, to catch a bus home to a party that not many of us felt like attending!
Just to fill you in on a few other facts from the night – of the 26 TV cameras covering the gig, by the end, only 12 were working! The bus drivers went on strike late in the afternoon which meant that around ¼ of the volunteer staff didn’t arrive until after the Qatar Flare Flag – which I watched from thru the window in the Krankenhaus. The athletes caused a mini riot at the end of the gig – they had been led to where they needed to cross to get to where buses were due to take them home, with some starting competition at 0600 the next morn, only to find the buses not there because the Emir had suddenly changed his mind and decided to leave the Stadium by a different road so there was no access! His Security detail had closed the road – effectively meaning that 2 of the 4 exits out of Kahlifa (for the 40,000 odd punters too) were now unusable! Remember, this all happened in the desert, during a massive rain storm, so, with only about 25 odd SM’s assigned to herd and then get the athletes on the buses, they were way outnumbered and when the buses were seen parked about two blocks away, they rioted, threw some punches at each other and ran for the buses!
When we did arrive home, we walked into Al Baker Gardens to find that the streets were rivers! Flooded! We were certain that there would be massive leaks inside but luckily there wasn’t but the entire street, bar a few islands (gotta love the ‘evenness’ of Qatarian workmanship), was ankle deep in water! I went up and had a shower first in a vain attempt to get the blood circulating again and to also escape the first 20mins of how crap it’d been etc. I know it’d been crap and didn’t need to discuss it further – the was a chunk of booze to get thru and for me, I can only really do that if there’s laughter etc. in the air. Most people disappeared for a little before arriving, some quiet reflection.
It ended up being a good night – well, we were on The Stoop! We realised that you could open up both sections of the front door & not just the section we’d been using for the last 4 weeks – didn’t take us too long! Therefore, this easily extended the Stoop inside and provided much shelter from the rain! Only 3 people ended up falling down the front stairs – marble does get mighty slippery when wet – through out the night and somehow, one of them wasn’t me! Twas a raucous night but nothing that you haven’t heard about already! It prob would have been a very different vibe had the rain not been around but it was a great night, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as if we all just sat around with our chins in our hands, it had just been a LONG day the rain continued to fall!
We bid our last guests, The Cowboys our farewells around 0600 & sent them off to bed with a resounding rendition of ‘Glory Days’ by Bruce Springsteen, finally closed the front door and crashed ourselves!
posted by Tango Techie @ 12:04 AM
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