What a swell party's in store

By GREG ANSLEY

The biggest party Australia has ever seen is about to hit Sydney. Over the next fortnight, the bash swirling around the 2000 Games will spill through streets, bars, parks, concert halls and the harbour.

More than eight million people are expected for the Games celebration.

On any given day the population of the central business district will balloon by 400,000 with partygoers taking in non-stop entertainment, free acts and music at six Olympics Live sites, and the vast programme of the 2000 Olympics art festival, which began on August 18 and will run to the end of this month.

The rich, famous and influential have had more invitations than they can poke a champagne glass at, with national Olympic committees booking our entire venues and top restaurants for the duration -- forget harbourside dining -- and corporations clamouring for the A-list.

The cost of wining and dining them will run to $A5000 ($6675) a head.
In the harbour, the truly sought-after will be wooed aboard luxury liners chartered by Games broadcaster, the Seven Network, the Games organising committee, Sydney radio station 2UE, American media titans Time and NBC, and IBM.

For the common herd, a massive haul of local and international talent has been signed up for Olympic Live sites at the Sydney Domain, Martin Place, Circular Quay, Pyrmont Bay Park, Belmore Park and Darling Harbour.
Artists move from Troy Cassar-Daly, Christine Anu and Yothu Yindi to jazz star James Morrison and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. At each of the sites there will also be 30m square video screens, carrying live Games broadcasts.

The arts festival spans more than 4000 international artists and 53 big productions, welcoming the arrival of the Olympics at the Opera House with ballet superstar Sylvie Guillem, tenor Andrea Bocelli and Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet.

At the Sydney SuperDome, 1000 musicians and singers will perform Mahler's Symphony No 8 while the NZ Symphony Orchestra and Tainui artists will be at the Opera House.

Aboriginal dancers will follow America's Arnie Zane Dance company' Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida will play alongside the Flying Fruit Fly Circus; and the Dead Sea Scrolls will compete with Leonardo da Vinci and treasures from Korea's Choson dynasty.

The end of the Games will ignite its own special party at the harbour.

Five giant video screens will show the final stages of the men's marathon and the closing ceremony.

The culmination of the celebrations will be a massive fireworks display expected to be watched by up to a million people lining the harbour.