Olympic Cheerleaders Feel the Chill

Submitted by edg on Wed, 4 Apr '12 10.50am

It promised "belly dancing, hula-hooping and a samba conga to West Princes St Gardens from Edinburgh's Big Screen on Festival Square.

"Rally your friends and neighbours and celebrate London 2012," said the press release.

However, an Edinburgh event to celebrate the UK launch of the London 2012 Local Leaders programme at Festival Square was cancelled yesterday at the last minute as Edinburgh's weather flipped almost 20C from temperatures we normally equate with a Summer heat wave to wintry showers.

A week ago, Edinburgh was basking in unseasonably warm weather of around 19C. Aboyne in Aberdeenshire set a new March record for Scotland of 23.6C.

However, on Monday, as the outlook deteriorated, organisers scaled the event back from two hours to one hour. Then, yesterday, shortly before the event was due to take place, they cancelled the event altogether.

"Unfortunately the samba event planned for 12 noon at Festival Square has been put paid to by the return of wintry weather," announced an email from the council PR at 10.45am.

Olympic cheerleaders

Local Leaders is London 2012’s community celebration campaign, designed "to encourage and harness people’s excitement for the Games by providing online guides, tools and resource packs to support celebration plans." There are around 7000 Local Leaders signed up across the UK, 239 of them in Scotland.

Local Leader events and activities tie in with key dates in the Games calendar. In "Garden for the Games" Local Leaders are being encouraged to prepare window boxes in Union Jack red, white and blue and fields and gardens of gold marigolds.

Youth led samba drumming project from Leith Move to the Pulse, who were due to take part in the launch of the Local Leaders yesterday, will be among the crowds lining the streets when the Flame comes to the capital on 13 June.

They will be playing renditions of ‘Chariots of Fire’ and ‘Keep on Running’ as the torch makes its journey through the city to Edinburgh Castle for the Olympic Flame Relay Evening Celebration.

Local Leaders are also expected to be organising local events for the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony on 27th July.

Other events Local Leaders across the UK will be playing a supporting role in, are barbecues for Super Saturday, lantern lighting for the Paralympic Torch Relay (from 24 to 29 August), and gatherings on 9th September to see the Games out.