The Olympics - 24-Hour Party Zone

[Whalleyboy]

little more on the surrey one here
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/20...t+skating+tobogganing/1408274/story.html

Surrey's 2010 Olympic party zone will feature outdoor skating, curling and tobogganing, as well as live entertainment.

"Special emphasis will also be placed on ethnic-food services, licensed beverage areas and VIP hospitality," says a request for proposals.

According to the tender document, the free, 17-day music, sport and arts festival will take place on a 2.5-hectare site at Holland Park on the corner of King George Highway and Old Yale Road. Surrey is looking for a production team to run the party zone, including a producer, production manager, site manager and video director.

The celebration plaza will have two stages, including jumbo video screens and up to 100 large plasma TVs spread throughout the site.

"Major emphasis will be placed on watching live television feeds of the Games," said the request for proposals.

Construction is due to begin Jan. 25, 2010, and the main stage will be used

Feb. 8 when the Olympic torch relay is due to arrive in Surrey.

The party zone will be open from Feb. 12 to 28.

Proposed hours of operation are from 3 to 10 p.m., Monday to Thursday; 3 to 11 p.m. on Fridays; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.

[johnjimbc]

I wasn't exactly sure where to post this, but didn't see any mention of it on here yet.

I went to the info session on road closures at the Main Library downtown yesterday since our building is somewhat surrounded by the closings and controlled routes just to see if I could get details on access to our building during the games (got some vague assurances).

But what surprised me while there was finding out that the Main Library will be host to "Vancouver House" for the games. They had a display set-up to advertise the Vancouver House so anyone attending the road closure info session also got a peak at the plans for Vancouver House. Basically, during the games, the Library Plaza - external and interior - will be the free public venue for visitors to the games to learn all about Vancouver. Here is a brief news release I found about Vancouver House today:

http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/newsreleases2009/NRvancouverhouse.htm

I also found a link with one image, though it doesn't include all the conceptual images on display yesterday:

http://olympichostcity.vancouver.ca/cityhighlights/lookofthecity/vancouver-house.htm

I was impressed. It should be a great location to attract lots of visitors.

There was also a small booth promoting the street car demonstration line as well as the long-term potential plans. Nothing that folks haven't already seen on here, but it was still nice to see them getting the word out to the general public.