The Millennium Dome, London Overview Review Avatars In the Press Links

				Have a great day out ! NMEC Chief Executive Jennie Page commented, "the Dome is meant to give people a great day out." What is supposed to last for the next millennium is not so much knowledge or new insights about the last one, but rather the memory of one amazing day in London, the millennium city. NMEC's international spokesperson Fiona Cline: "What we want to last is, that people who had a good day here, will remember it for the rest of their lives. But that's not gonna be a thousand years, I guess." [ listen to the interview ] At least, all managers and spokesmen repeat like a prayer, at least people will have an amazing day out. Before the Dome's opening, six years of planning and organizing passed, and £ 758 million were devoured. Since new year's eve, the managers have been struggling to deflect a stream of criticism. It began with a ticket fiasco at the inauguration festivities. "Queues, crushes and no champagne", was the title of one of The Independent's articles on January, 2nd. Thousands were queueing to get into the Dome, even invited VIP guests had to wait for entrance tickets that organizers forgot to post. In the first weeks of January, the Dome has been docked by poor ticket sales, lengthy queues, broken interactive games and computer displays as well as damning reviews in the British press. NMEC had devoted so much time to marketing, the tenor goes, that it neglected to assure enough creative ideas to go inside the Dome. The Guardian's destruction: "Bits are imaginative; bits are bland; bits, too many, are trite and trashy." Even the designers themselves attacked the organizers in press interviews. Despite their different backgrounds, almost all agreed on the missing over-all conceptional direction with regard to the Dome's ideas and its interior design, especially the lack of connections between the zones. They complain of competing voices of sponsors, organisers and designers, missing instruction and an unwillingness to take risks. >> Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 TOP
	Project Background | Events | Reports and Essays Zukunftszeugen | Contact Us | Home Page Last Modified: 2002-04-23 TOP