Published on : Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Ambitious plans are under way for every bell across Yorkshire to ring out as part of the
Team Presentation Opening Ceremony of the Tour de France.
The final wave of tickets have been released for the July 3 event which will be the biggest in the history of the Tour, featuring the stars of world cycling alongside live entertainment
including headline act Embrace, Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh and Opera North among
many others.
Organisers are inviting everyone to ring a bell – from church bells to bikes bells
– for two minutes at the same time just after 8.30pm when Christian Prudhomme, Director of the Tour de France, and Gary Verity, CEO of Welcome to Yorkshire, take to the stage to mark the official start of Yorkshire’s Grand Départ as part of the live Opening Ceremony at Leeds Arena.
Pictures of mass bell ringing will be beamed onto screens and the big ring is designed to be
a symbolic bringing-together of the entire county as it heralds the beginning of Yorkshire’s
Grand Départ ahead of Stage One of the cycle race starting in Leeds on July 5.
Dozens of churches are already set to take part and Rod Ismay, from The Yorkshire
Association of Change Ringers, can’t wait. He said: “Yorkshire has some stunning churches
and cathedrals.
They will be landmarks along the race route and we are going to ring their
bells to make the loudest most joyful noise to officially welcome the Tour de France to our
county.
We’ve already enjoyed being part of the wonderful Yorkshire Festival and we are
really excited that our communities can be part of the Opening Ceremony.
In fact, anyone
with a bell would be most welcome to ring it loud and join us for this momentous occasion.”
The final wave of tickets for the huge show at Leeds Arena have now been released for sale
for the event which has a theme of ‘The People of Yorkshire Welcome the World’.
The show’s Executive Producer, Martin Green, who staged the Opening and Closing
Ceremonies for the Olympic Games, said: “This is a groundbreaking event for the Tour de
France – never before in the history of the race have they seen an opening ceremony like
this and encouraging bells across our county to ring out together on the evening of July 3
truly will be the signal for the whole of the county to welcome the world.”
Tags: Travel Destination News, Yorkshire's Opening Ceremony
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