Quick Facts – Culture, Ceremonies and Education

• The arts and cultural activities of the VANOC Cultural Olympiad programs will reach more than 1.5 million spectators from 2008 through 2010. 
• The Cultural Olympiad will showcase Canada as an exciting, innovative, culturally diverse 21st Century nation at the nexus of the Asia-Pacific, North American and European economies 
• The Olympic Arts Festival will last five weeks, starting three weeks prior to the Olympic Winter Games on January 22, 2010 and running through the final day on February 28, 2010. 
• The Paralympic Arts Festival will run throughout the Paralympic Winter Games, March 12 – 21, 2010. 
• The Arts Festivals will celebrate the best in BC, Canadian and international arts and culture in a “festival of festivals” format featuring aboriginal, classical and contemporary music, theatre, dance, film, literary, visual arts, street entertainment and more. 
• The Arts Festivals will electrify 30 indoor and outdoor venues in Vancouver and Whistler with sensational ticketed and free events. 
• Through the Cultural Olympiad, VANOC will present and produce a broad spectrum of cultural activities in partnership with more than 100 Canadian arts and cultural organizations. 
• Vancouver 2010 is an extraordinary opportunity to promote Canadian cultural products and Canadian innovation through the arts to the world.

• The Olympic Opening Ceremony will take place on February 12 and the Olympic Closing Ceremony February 28, 2010, both at the 55,000-seat BC Place Stadium located in downtown Vancouver. 
• BC Place Stadium covers four hectares and has the largest air-supported stadium roof in North America. 
• On March 12, 2010, the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony will be presented in BC Place stadium. The Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games Closing Ceremony will be presented on March 21, 2010 in Whistler at the same celebration site used for the Whistler component of the nightly Olympic Victory Ceremonies. 
• The Opening and Closing Ceremonies casts for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will include more than 12,500 volunteer and professional performers. 
• The 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be the first to present the Opening and Closing Ceremonies in a covered, indoor stadium. 
• Olympic Victory Ceremonies will be held every night from February 13 to February 27 in front of 40,000 spectators, 5,000 Olympic team members at BC Place Stadium as well as at a temporary celebration site in Whistler Village with a capacity of approximately 8,000. 
• Tens of millions will watch the medals presentations at home via televised broadcasts of the Victory Ceremonies. 
• The Victory Ceremonies venues will feature large video screens and a television feed connecting BC Place Stadium and the Whistler celebration site, in order to link the nightly Medal Award Ceremony presentations in Whistler and Vancouver and allow both communities to participate in the celebrations. Medals won in Whistler will be presented at the celebration site while those won in Greater Vancouver will be presented in BC Place Stadium. 
• Each night the Olympic Victory Ceremony presentations in Vancouver and Whistler will be followed by a concert presented by some of Canada’s best-known and most dynamic performers. 
• The 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be the first to present the Victory Ceremonies in an indoor stadium. It will also be the first Games to simultaneously present medals at both a mountain and city celebration site and to link those sites via large screen video displays in order to ensure that audiences in both venues can participate in the medal awards. 
• Paralympic Victory Ceremonies will take place at the venues for each of the sport competitions in Whistler and Vancouver. A celebration plaza will be operational in Whistler during the Paralympic Games and medal recognition events will be planned throughout the Games to celebrate the daily winners in the alpine and Nordic events. 
• Team Welcome Ceremonies will officially greet each Olympic and Paralympic team to Vancouver and Whistler on arrival at the Olympic and Paralympic Villages. Ceremonies will feature a welcome by the honourary village mayor and a raising of the team’s flag alongside the flags of Canada and the Olympic and Paralympic Movements.

• Vancouver 2010’s education program will capitalize on the leading-edge capabilities of British Columbia, and Canada, in education, distance education techniques and technologies and new media content development and production.
• Our premier K-12 program will be an online, interactive, bilingual monthly e-magazine where students, teachers and the public can learn more about Vancouver 2010, the Olympic and Paralympic Movements and the three Games pillars of Sport, Culture and Sustainability. 
• Our education program will promote and enhance existing content developed and delivered by the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, government ministries of education, teachers and non-profit organizations from the areas of sport, culture and sustainability. Our program will showcase the very best in 2010-related education programs in Canada.
• We will reach more than one million Canadian students, and many more around the world.
• This exciting online program will be formally launched in September 2007 and will run through June 2010.