2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games took place on the evening of Friday 27 July 2012 in the Olympic Stadium, London. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal ceremonial opening of this international sporting event (including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes) with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture. The 2012 Games were formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The spectacle was entitled Isles of Wonder and directed by Academy Award-winning British film director Danny Boyle. Prior to London 2012
Colonialism and the Olympic Games theories, as well as promoting the regular Olympic Games. While Anthropology Days were not officially part of the Olympics program, they were closely associated with each other at the time, and in history—Brownell notes that even today historians still debate as to which of the LPE events were the "real" Olympic Games. Additionally, almost all of the 400 athletic events were referred to as "Olympian," and the opening ceremony, which normally signals the start of the Olympics, was held in May on the "first day of the first sports event" with dignitaries in attendance, though the official Olympic program did