The dramatic kabuki reveal that launched the opening ceremony of the Millennium Dome in Greenwich was triggered by an Avolites Pearl desk.

This BIG heart-in-mouth moment signaled the start of London's spectacular Millennium Celebrations as the roll-over of the century reached the UK.

The Dome's opening was attended by HM The Queen, the Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet and a plethora of other politicians, dignitaries, VIPs and stars, and watched by a television audience of several billion. Of the countless celebrations going on nation-wide that evening, it was the one that really mattered in terms of the Britain's national profile.

The Pearl was operated by Andy Jupp who was project managing the opening ceremony for drapes manufacturer Blackout. Andy had been working on it for three months previously, along with colleague Simon Chandler-Honnor, who specified the Pearl for this vital role.

The kabuki drop itself involved 45 yellow drapes measuring between 30 and 40 metres in length and 6 to 15 meters in width. They totaled an impressive 1.5 square kilometres of cloth!

The opening show's creative director, Mark Fisher, wanted the drapes to fall, Mexican wave style, over a 26 second period. 

Six hundred meters of truss was suspended below the perimeter of the Dome's Promenade section - the walkway running above the Zones. The trussing was divided into six sections, in turn subdivided into two. Artistic License designed and supplied all the cabling and distribution for the kabuki system. Each of the 12 trussing sections was fitted with two Artistic Licence DMX Kabuki controllers, each of which could handle up to 4 standard motors. A total of 45 motors were utilised for the drop, fired by the Avo desk programmed with a stack chase. 

Lighting designer for the opening ceremony was Patrick Woodroffe and additional lighting was supplied by Neg Earth Lights. 

As many will have seen, the drop was a resounding success and even the HM Queen appeared impressed!