Fantastical wheeled vehicles, roller-skating warriors and bursts of fire brought the London Paralympics to a close Sunday, in a quirky closing ceremony headlined by Coldplay, Rihanna and Jay-Z.
British supergroup Coldplay provided the backdrop to a three-hour extravaganza interspersed with dance and performance at the Olympic Stadium in east London, belting out hits including “Clocks”, “The Scientist” and “Yellow”.
“Being asked to play at the Paralympic Closing Ceremony in our home town is a huge honour,” said lead singer Chris Martin. “This will be the biggest night of our lives,” added Martin, who is married to US actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
The band, who have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, accepted a fee of £1 ($1.60, 1.25 euros) to headline the show. The ceremony kicked off with a procession of fire jugglers, a parade of drummers carrying blazing beacons, and a giant burning model cyclist who wheeled around the stadium.
Dressed unusually modestly in a flowing orange gown and veil, Barbados star Rihanna sailed into the show onboard a model ship and sang a steamy duet with Martin, before performing another number on a swing strung high over the stadium.Trapeze artists tumbled from the skies as sparks flew from above their heads in a festival-themed show watched by 80,000 spectators in the stadium and millions worldwide on television.
Outlandish vehicles also played a central role in the show, with trucks including a giant dinosaur made of 25 old BMWs, a whale built from an old helicopter and a giant grasshopper joining the parade.
Drummer Mat Fraser, who was born with deformed arms after his mother took the drug thalidomide during her pregnancy, performed a number with Coldplay after Martin watched him perform during the Paralympic opening ceremony.
A cast of 1,336 volunteers from around the world and more than 50 drummers were also among the performers in a show with themes ranging from military sacrifice to the changing seasons. The next Paralympic hosts, Rio de Janeiro, provided a carnival-flavoured taste of 2016 with a colourful segment featuring “dance battles” between performers of different styles.
Roberta Marquez and Thiago Soares, both Brazilian stars of the British Royal Ballet, performed with a group of Brazilian visually-impaired dancers.
There was a huge sigh from the packed stadium as International Paralympic Committee chief Philip Craven declared the London Games officially closed, before British athletes Ellie Simmonds and Jonnie Peacock extinguished the flame.
Global superstars close Games
Coldplay, Rihanna and Jay-Z on Sunday brought the curtain down on the London Paralympics, in a celebratory mood amid claims that the Games had helped usher in a “seismic” shift in attitudes towards disability. The British band opened the planned three-hour extravaganza of song and dane, watched by 80,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium and many of the 4,200 athletes at trackside in the shadow of the burning Paralympic flame. The show, entitled “Festival of the Flame”, was a tribute to Britain’s many artistic, cultural, musical and seasonal festivals and was billed as being a journey through the seasons to music and dance, artistic director Kim Gavin said. Organisers hailed the Games as the biggest and most high-profile in its 52-year history, with more media attention and a record number of athletes from more than 160 countries, including for the first time reclusive North Korea. London 2012 chief Sebastian Coe said that with 2.7 million tickets sold, packed venues and vocal crowds, the Games had created a global platform for elite disabled sport and also helped change perceptions of people with disabilities. “I really genuinely do think that we have had a seismic effect on shifting public attitudes,” he told a news conference. “I don’t think people will ever see sport in the same way again. I don’t think they will ever see disability in the same way again. We have talked about what we can do rather than what we can’t do.” Earlier on Sunday, one of the stand-out performers of the Games, British wheelchair racer David Weir, was roared to victory and his fourth gold in the men’s marathon around the landmarks of central London.
