Day 5 - Victory Ceremony with the Bare Naked Ladies

After Maelle's victory, i wanted to be sure to catch the Medal ceremony at BC place. The Bare Naked Ladies were also scheduled to play that night, so it was gearing up to be another great night. Unfortunately getting to the stadium proved to be more of a challenge than you would think. First off, i had to go through security to get into the media center, then again before boarding the bus that was taking media over to the stadium. While on the bus, we again had to go through security where police officers search under the bus with mirrors to look for bombs or other nasty stuff before they let the bus near the stadium. As we pull up outside, they told everybody to get off the bus, so we did. I followed the directions and entered the building. I took a few minutes before i realized that they sent us into the wrong building. I could hear hockey but i thought they were just playing the hockey game live on the big screen, but then i noticed that the curve of the building as we walked around in the bottom level was too tight to be BC Place. We were at GM place!!! we were already cutting it close for the medal ceremony, and we were not even in the right building. Nobody could tell us how to get next door to BC place. We eventually found our way outside, but still could not find our way, some directed us into the TV broadcast compound, and from there we were able to find our way into the basement of BC place. Even here there was nobody that could tell us who to get upstairs. After walking around the entire bottom level, passing what turned out to be many of the secret props used in the closing ceremonies, we eventually found the ramp onto the field that Rick Hansen had to climb to light pass the torch during the opening ceremonies. It looked steep on TV, and i tell you it was even steeper in person. At last we could see the stage, but security would not let us through, they sent us back down the ramp to continue our quest. We passed 3 more people before somebody finally pointed us in the right direction to the photo desk.

At the desk i ran into an old co worker friend Tyler Garnham who was one of the venue photo managers. He took great care of us and led me to the photo pit. At this point i found out they had postponed Maelle's ceremony to the next day, so i did all of this for nothing. I had no clue who else was getting a medal, but it turned out to be Mike Robertson with the Silver medal in Boardercross. After the ceremony, Tyler lead me to the front of the stage where we got to shot the first 3 songs of the Bare Naked Ladies. I then went up into the upper levels to shoot some overview shots, then i finished the night having a beer with Tyler watching the end of the concert in the press tribune.

It was quite the day. I got to witness my first of many Canadian Gold medal victories, experience my first of many difficulties with the venue transportation system, and watch one of my favorite bands play a concert.