Julie Bennett was one of the 7,500 volunteers who took part in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.
I was really excited by the Olympics coming to London; I’m not a sports fan but love London and being involved in things. I couldn’t get tickets, so I thought, let’s be part of it. I signed up and was invited to an audition at Three Mills in Bromley by Bow (where ‘Made in Dagenham’ was made).
There were about 300 of us in an aircraft hanger size building asked to do a 3 hour aerobics session. I thought I’m so not capable of doing this! I laughed my way through the whole thing. It was like being in a nightclub in the 90s with acid house music – a really exciting buzz. There were all ages 18-75. Some were doing back flips, others very little. We were constantly told ‘You don’t know what we are looking for. It doesn’t matter that you can’t do this’.
Later I got a letter saying congratulations, you are through to the next audition. That was acting. I’d never done any before but I was willing to try anything. They gave us emotions to portray, grief, surprise, anger, jealousy, and then a scenario where we had to work out characters and put ourselves into a representative tableau. It was amazing how much we learnt in such a small time frame.
Some of Green and Pleasant cast
This all happened in November 2011. We were told we would be contacted in January 2012, so I waited to hear all over Christmas. But then I got a letter saying yes, we would like to offer you a part in the opening ceremony, we were given 20 preliminary rehearsal dates. We heard nothing more until May 2012.
I was one of 300 in the first section, Green and Pleasant. The first rehearsals were very general. We acted farmyard type characters – chopping hay, eating apples, rambling. We were taught to interact with each other naturally. We were asked to fill our field equally and they explained we had to imagine ourselves on a plate balancing on a stick having to distribute ourselves evenly so that the plate did not tip. It really worked; no-one stood too close together keeping our space equally filled and our imaginary plate flat.
We were shown a film of library footage combinations of what our bit would look like - black and white footage of rural Britain. We knew nothing of the rest of the ceremony. We were asked to keep our knowledge of the ceremony secret, but we didn’t want to tell as it would spoil their pleasure, so I suppressed my tendency to gossip!
The next rehearsals were in the old Ford factory in Dagenham. It is a huge building and had a circus tent in the middle for meetings and 2 rehearsal areas both equal sizes to the stadium, so we saw the next segment to ours rehearsing there - National Health Service with their beds. We wondered what on earth the beds were all about.
Every time we turned up to rehearsals in Dagenham there was something new - a cottage, picket fencing, a scarecrow and on the last day fake grass, there was so much detail to the grass even fake weeds.
and sheep
There were lots of times we would have to sit about waiting for instructions, but everyone was so happy and privileged to be there it didn’t matter. We would act for about 20 minutes watched by Danny Boyle in a control tower (we called it the Royal Box as everything was directed to it). Then we would wait around for about an hour while there were discussions. Danny Boyle was hands on all the time, using a tannoy to talk to us. He was in charge of the overall vision, what it looks like generally. Steve managed the mass choreography, the general movement of everyone and Toby, the choreographer of War Horse, was out on the field instructing us as individuals all the time.
Danny was great, he would be standing at the door as you left saying thank you. I’m sure he spoke to everyone at least a couple of times. Cast members one day decided they wanted his autograph. There was such a long queue and he signed and signed and signed for hours. It was really impressive.
Rehearsals then moved to the stadium. It was so exciting that this was our new home for the next few weeks. It was great to see the Olympic Park develop each rehearsal with new structures, signage, the stadium wrap; the whole thing grew bigger and better at each time. For me the lighting stood out. They would practice all the different lighting combinations as we rehearsed for example the light show of James Bond would be happening It was bizarre.
The rehearsals were long, towards the end from 10am-10pm. We were given food packs, huge meat or veg sandwiches every time with Pringles and a Nature Valley bar. I never want to look at them again.
I made some really good friends. My group was made up of people from as far away as Newcastle (she commuted to London each time taking a night coach leaving at 2am) and Cardiff but also a couple from Dagenham and Chelmsford. There was a great range of people.
Bringing in the kids
I was on Maypole West. Initially I was instructed to ‘strike a tree’ – which meant I had to take a tree from the stadium as I left. I had 7 children (of about 9 years old from Nightingale School in Bexleyheath) to take on. There were continual changes, sometimes they would say take the children off at this time and not the tree and then it would change to no take the tree, someone else will take the children, which is how it ended up on the night. We were informed about these changes via the sticker on our bibs (a thing we had to wear during all our rehearsals that had our details on and a large number so we could be directed by our by number) which we checked for the latest information when we arrived.
The tree I had to strike was part of a number on the field of play. It was actually real but with plastic apples. The first time I met the tree it had legs like a Christmas tree so was easy to pick up and take off. However in the first dress rehearsal I found it was attached to the stage! It didn’t move. I had to take the tree. So I yanked it and broke the stage, there was a hole and wood everywhere. I dropped the tree off and found the props person telling them I had just made a hole in the stage! It turned out that they had introduced a mechanical lock and hadn’t told us that we had to unlock the trees.
I loved it all the way through. It was sometimes gruelling; at 8am on a Sunday morning I would think, why am I doing this, but everyone was always happy. We would rehearse in the rain in plastic ponchos. It rained during most of the rehearsals. We knew there would be no plastic ponchos in the real thing. You have to act that it’s a sunny day.
In costume but before make up
Our costumes – we were taken out one by one from the rehearsals and shown loads of costumes on a rail. I was asked what dress size I was. I replied that I didn’t know, I hadn’t worn a dress for years! We were all dressed individually. I needed a bandana because my haircut was considered too modern, nothing like a country working lady. I was also given a shawl and espadrilles. None of the Green and Pleasant people had face makeup as they should be natural, but I needed my tattoo painted out with makeup so had a chance to sit on one of those high chairs in front of a mirror surrounded by lights.
I was never nervous – the stadium was so big and the audience so far away so there was no pressure. You just focussed on your task. Toby taught us well; we imagined we were in the village going to a summer fete, with children, gossiping, in that world, unaware of where we actually were. We were told to be slow, elegant, relaxing, to contrast with the industrial revolution, the section that came on after us. We were told don’t exaggerated anything, less is more, on stage everything is interesting.
Then the ‘Brunels’ came out in shiny top hats trampling across our fields. We had to get all the countryside props and the children off with 3,000 industrial revolution people coming on determined to take over. It really did scare us. How could we get off when they were coming on? They removed the grass, pulling it from under our feet when we were carrying a tree. People fell and it was slippery in the rain. In the end they changed the system so that we didn’t get in each other’s paths. We were genuinely scared and unsure of our future in our countryside setting.
During rehearsals our maypoles were scaffolding poles which would sway from side to side with the ribbons occasionally falling off. We were told we would eventually get thick, beautiful wooden ones. The first dress rehearsal, still a scaffolding pole. The second dress rehearsal, still scaffolding poles, and the third. Eventually we were told that the real ones had been too heavy to remove so had gone back to the factory to be adjusted. In the end we never had proper maypoles!
What was great was we got to watch the next section to ours in rehearsals all the time, which was industrial revolution. The chimneys in that section were made of canvas and blew in the wind, so sometimes got stuck coming down. There were men on wires who were supposed to be hammering the chimneys but sometimes the chimneys were not there and they would just have to hang there hammering the sky!
There were cameras everywhere, cameras on wires like birds, one time one in my face. We had instructions all the way through on our ear monitors, and heard everyone else’s instruction too. The timing for drummers was really clever, there were words to illustrate the beat – ‘I’m in need of a drink, I’m in need of a drink’. We had to focus on our own dance captain’s voice.
For the dress rehearsals and the real thing our dressing rooms were in Eton Manor and we walked for 40 minutes to the stadium. During the rehearsals there were helicopters with paparazzi, and they were loose in the park one day. They caught us once and there were some photos in the Daily Mail. After that we were told via our ear pieces to stay in dressing rooms when necessary and the flight paths of the helicopters were controlled.
On the day I was getting so many texts, Facebook messages of good luck from my friends that I had to turn my phone off as I felt I might get nervous. One of my children, when we were due to walk out, was nearly in tears saying, ‘I don’t think I can go out’. I told her to pretend it was the first rehearsal we did and there was no one watching. We were at the same entrance as the orchestra that played Chariots of Fire with Mr Bean. I asked the guy with huge trombone to play and distract the kids, which he did and they loved it.
We had to get the kids to do the maypole dance at exactly 9 o’clock but we were in the stadium earlier. They wanted to shout the countdown which we had to prevent.
We heard the crowd applaud at the end of Kenneth Brannah’s ‘Be not afraid’ speech. It was unbelievable, 80,000 people making what sounded like a big roar, not clapping or screaming as you would expect, it was really cool.
John McEnroe and me
I got to hold the Olympic flame and had a picture taken. There were spare ones on opening day in case something happened to Beckham’s.
I met one or two celebrities. I had a photo with John McEnroe, Colin Jackson and Danny Boyle. Danny came round to everyone to say good luck on the night.
We all got a certificate, ‘Thank you for volunteering your time, energy and skills …volunteers are the very heart of the event and without you it would not have been possible’ signed by Danny Boyle. I got to keep my costume which had a label with the Olympic logo but its unlikely that I will wear it again!
I never realised how large the Olympics is and how everyone is so interested in it. For me the whole thing was unreal and spinetinglingly exciting. I was very lucky to have a part in the greatest show on earth.
You can get the music from the opening ceremony, The Isles of Wonder, from Amazon here
