February 14, 2010 | 2010 Olympics >
Vancouver, Festivals & Events
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By now, I’ve learnt to leave a couple of hours to get into Vancouver’s free Olympic events – at least the big ones. So my friends and I joined the line around David Lam Park early to see alt-rock Chicago band, Wilco perform at Livecity Yaletown. And surprisingly we all moved pretty fast, getting in to see today’s Games highlights on the big screens. Canadian Jenn Heil’s silver medal win at the Women’s Moguls at Cypress Mountain was going down a storm, with US fans jubilant over Hannah Kearney’s Gold.
Award winners (of the Grammy kind), Wilco got everyone rocking enough to forget about the pouring rain. I got chatting to Steve from London, UK who’s a big fan, but even more psyched about his Olympic snowboarding tickets. “It’s one thing watching the Games on telly, but way more special getting to see them live,” he admitted.
As the band drew to a close, we checked out the rest of Livecity Yaletown, stalls offering global street food, 3-D videos in the Panasonic marquee and computer games in the Samsung tent. Coca-Cola’s tube-shaped pavilion showcased bottle designs through the ages, interactive games, a giant polar bear and video footage of the Olympic torch relay.
Trooping out, we were just in time to catch a spectacular firework display over False Creek.