With 3 billion viewers worldwide, tonight's opening ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics will be international in scope — but local in flavor.
"We will feel Utah throughout the whole show," said Don Mischer, the ceremonies' executive producer.
Beginning with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing the national anthem, the ceremonies will show off the American West, using Native American dancing and wagon-train depictions.
But don't expect a pioneer epic when the show starts at 6 p.m. in Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"We're not doing a history pageant," Mischer said Thursday. "This is about music, dance, movement and spectacle, hopefully with some emotion behind it."
Yes, organizers want emotion — but not the melodrama of a "Hollywood event," Mitt Romney said.
"This isn't just a trip to an amusement park," said Romney, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. "We want to bring some meaning."
The show is stocked with symbolism, all centered around the 2002 Games' mantra, "Light the fire within." In the opening storyline, a 12-year-old "Child of Light" — representing humanity — encounters a storm and overcomes by discovering the "fire within," which stands for the human spirit.
For now, organizers have to worry about the "winds without" and how swirling weather — today's forecast calls for winds up to 20 mph — could derail some some show props.
What else to expect at tonight's opening ceremonies:
A surprise when it comes to who lights the caldron. Reporters peppered organizers with questions about the final torchbearer's (or torchbearers') identity, including suggestions that members of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey team would be involved. But Romney would confirm only one thing: "It is a human being."
Native American dancing. The five nations of Utah — Ute, Goshute, Paiute, Shoshoni and Navajo — will enter the stadium separately and then finish in symbolic solidarity.
An earlier-than-usual entrance by the athletes. Breaking with Olympic tradition, the competitors will come in near the beginning rather than the end.
John Williams directing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in singing his theme for the Games, "Call of the Champions."
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