2005 London Olympic Bid Celebration, Trafalgar Square

On 1st September 2005, Heather Small performed Proud in Trafalgar Square to celebrate London's successful Olympic Bid.

BBC ARTICLE
London finally marks 2012 success

Crowds joined official celebrations for London's victorious 2012 Olympic bid in Trafalgar Square - eight weeks after the city won the event.
Tickertape in Olympic colours filled the sky as acrobats abseiled from the top of Nelson's Column, down which a 300ft silk banner was unfurled.

The party was put on hold after the announcement on 6 July, because of the bombings which killed 52 the next day.

Chairman Lord Coe said it was the right time to mark the event.
He told BBC London it was important to mark London's success after it won the right to host the 2012 Games and Paralympics in a showdown with Paris.

"Clearly it wasn't appropriate a day afterwards to start celebrating and, frankly, none of us wanted to anyway," he said. (Mayor Ken Livingston)

"But this was just a nice opportunity, eight weeks on from Singapore, for me personally to be able to thank Londoners."

Former M People singer Heather Small, supported by a gospel choir, sang "Proud", the bid's campaign anthem.

Lord Coe used the event to stress that the Games would be used to encourage a future generation to take part in sport.

Preparations have begun to build facilities for the 2012 Games and London's organising committee is ready to start work.

Xavier Gonzalez, chief executive of the International Paralympics Committee, visited London for talks on Monday, exactly seven years before the start of the Games for disabled athletes.

Among others at the event on Thursday were Mayor Ken Livingstone, Olympic gold medal winning sailor Shirley Robertson and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell.

She said those killed in the bomb attacks on London the day after the Olympics announcement was made would not be forgotten.

Mr Livingstone said: "We will use the seven years before the Games to drive home that we are one people, it is one Olympics and with 2012 we will celebrate that with a passion that no one will ever forget."

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