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Date Posted: 15:34:16 06/18/00 Sun
Author: David H
Subject: When Runcible (and practically everyone else in Brisbane) saw the Olympic Flame

Wednesday July 14th was the day the Olympic Flame came to Brisbane. The schedule the torch relay was running to meant that the convoy took all afternoon, running a convoluted route through the inner Western Suburbs, to travel the six or seven kilometres between the lunchtime Community Celebration venue of the Mt Coot-Tha Botanic Gardens and the evening venue of the City Botanic Gardens.

As a result, the convoy didn't reach the City Centre until a fair tick or two after 5:00pm, which also gave the city workforce a chance to get out and line the route for what may be their only possibility for seeing it. I took the chance and found a reasonable vantage point to film from, roughly half-way across the Victoria Bridge.

Actually seeing the Flame pass by can be rather a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of event, but it was also possible for me to track the convoy's approach, firstly by keeping an eye on the Channel Seven chopper, which was hovering above the convoy relaying pictures back to the BTQ studios; and secondly by monitoring the police escort of the convoy, which organised rolling traffic blockades and crowd controls.

While the convoy took its little detour around Southbank and the 'Gabba (which will host soccer matches during the Games), I and a fair few fellow attendees walked up to the City Botanic Gardens to catch the Evening Celebration. When I arrived, the indigenous dance troupe were in the midst of their performance.

The torch finally arrived late, as seemed to be the norm for the evening events, and the final leg (from the middle of the Gardens to the Riverstage, where the event was being held) was run by Kieren Perkins. The funniest moment of the night was when Perkins went to light the Community Cauldron where the flame would burn for the rest of the event -- it wouldn't ignite! It took him three or four tries to light the sucker (it helps if the stagehands put the gas on, y'know...).

The rest of the event was mostly filled by local pub bands, so I decided to head for home after filming some stock footage crowd shots. It was still an enjoyable night, but gods were my feet sore at the end of it!

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