Fiery Olympic farewell to torch sky

By GREG ANSLEY and REUTERS

The Sydney Olympics will go out with a bang - a low-flying fighter bomber will ignite a long stream of jet fuel and a million people will be treated to one of the world's most spectacular firework displays.

"Normally when you get to the end of an Olympic Games there is a feeling that the whole thing is over and we are all going home," said Ignatius Jones, artistic director of tonight's extravaganza.

"Not in Sydney. We are going out with a bang."

The F-111 jet will "dump and burn" fuel at 1000ft above Stadium Australia, where the athletes will enjoy a giant "backyard party" and be serenaded by pop princess Kylie Minogue.

The plane's dramatic flight will be the signal for 24 "lightning shells" to explode like giant flashbulbs all the way down the Parramatta River to downtown Sydney, where another F-111 will light up the sky over the Harbour Bridge.

It is being dubbed "the river of lightning."

Mr Jones, in a dig at London's "river of fire" that proved a damp squib on millennium night, said: "It will be very different from the river of fire on the Thames in that it will work."

The night sky will then blaze with fireworks that have a truly international flavour - pyrotechnic experts from Spain, Japan, the United States and South Africa are contributing to the grand explosion of light.

Mr Jones has promised that the display will be bigger and better than Sydney's millennium celebrations, which ranked as one of the most breathtaking on the eve of the new century.

"It will dwarf anything we have done before," he said of the fireworks that will be set off from four giant barges, 10 smaller boats and the rooftops of downtown skyscrapers.

Sydney loves to party and organisers expect up to a million people to pack the best vantage points around the harbour to watch the 23-minute show, which will consume $A3 million ($3.8 million) worth of fireworks.

The Harbour Bridge, Sydney's most beloved landmark along with the Opera House, will be the centrepiece of the festivities.

A pyrotechnic waterfall in the colours of the Olympic rings is to cascade off the bridge to signal the end of the display and the start of a night of non-stop partying for a city revelling in the praise heaped on the first Games of the millennium.

Other hints have emerged about who will perform. Vanessa Amorosi, the 19-year-old Melbourne singer who also sang at the opening, will be the only performer other than opening star Nikki Webster to appear in both ceremonies.

Amorosi said she would sing Absolutely Everybody, which is nearing double platinum sales in Australia and is the longest-charting single ever by an Australian female.

It has also turned gold on the New Zealand charts.

Other stars include INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Midnight Oil and the Aboriginal group Yothu Yindi, with appearances by comedian Paul Hogan and supermodel Elle Macpherson.

The cast will include 7500 other performers and circus acts.

Five thousand boats are expected to pack the harbour for the extravaganza as well.

About 100,000 revellers are expected at live performances in the central city, and about 60,000 at a free concert in the Sydney Domain headlined by Australian pop group Savage Garden.

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