Vancouver Housing and Hotels During the Olympics

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The organizing committee has reserved 80% of the hotel space in downtown Vancouver. Most hotels have already sold the remaining 20% of their rooms. While some downtown hotels or rooms may become available in the coming months. VANOC says visitors need to manage their expectations. Visitors may need to look to the suburbs or to local bed and breakfast accommodations. The city of Vancouver is also looking at relaxing temporary accommodation bylaws during the olympic period. Residents would be able to rent one bedroom to no more than two people without a permit. Those wanting to rent more than one bedroom would need a Vancouver Business Licence which costs about $150 dollars. To prevent evictions nobody will be allowed to rent to Olympic guests if they have tenants after September 1st. The city would like to see some housing supply added by relaxing the bylaw accommodations but they don't want to compromise the citizens of Vancouver . They are trying to work through it and find some creative ways to add to the housing supply without having any negative consequences.

2010 Olympic hockey schedule released

The Canadian women will begin their quest for a third straight Olympic hockey gold on Feb. 13 at the 2010 Vancouver Games, with the Canadian men scheduled to play their first game three days later.

The newly released Olympic hockey schedule, which still may be changed around slightly, has these Team Canada openers at GM Place, dubbed Canada Hockey Place for the Games: the women's side plays Slovakia, while the men will face Norway.

The women's team plays its other two preliminary games Feb. 15 against Switzerland and Feb. 17 against Sweden, at the University of British Columbia.

All three of the men's preliminary games will be played in the mid-afternoon at local time. Canada plays Switzerland on Feb. 18 and the Americans on Feb. 21.

The men's gold-medal game will be played at 12:15 p.m. local time on the final day of the Olympic Games, Feb. 28. The women's final will be played Feb. 25.

The Canadian men, who won gold at the 2002 Games, were left out of the medals at the 2006 Olympics in Italy.

The International Ice Hockey Federation expects only minor changes to the overall schedule

Olympics-Opening ceremonies unthinkable without music

LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Imagine the Olympics Games void of music - the raising of the Olympic flag without the Olympic hymn, the parade of nations in a hushed stadium and synchronized swimming to the sounds of silence.

Music has helped turn the Olympics opening ceremony into one of sport's great occasions and Beijing organisers have already released pre-Olympic jingles, including the theme song for the 100-day countdown celebration featuring vocals by Hong Kong film hero Jackie Chan.

The musical lineup for the Beijing Games, which start on Friday, remains secret although the Olympics Cultural Festival, from June 23 to Sept. 17, will include a performance by British soprano Sarah Brightman.

The founding father of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, felt the Games needed to integrate sport and the arts and his zeal led to the creation of competitions in music, sculpture, painting, literature and architecture in 1912.

Winners of the so-called "Pentathlon of the muses" were, like their athletic counterparts, awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.

"He wanted (to include) the arts pretty much from the start and this was all part of his vision," said Olympic historian Phillip Barker.

"It was a nice idea to try and make out that everybody wasn't just a muddied oaf."

The competitions suffered, however, because judges deemed many of the entries substandard and refusing to award medals.

Another sticking point was the amateur rule that forbade professionals from participating in the Games, thereby preventing contributions from the artistic elite.

After 1948, the arts competitions were abandoned, and the host cities focused instead on the cultural festival held in the run-up to and throughout the Games.

Music has been especially prominent at the opening and closing ceremonies.

"In the opening ceremonies you have a lot of prescribed music. The Olympic hymn has to be sung ... and the national anthem of the host country," said the author of "100 Years of Olympic Music", William Guegold.

Increasingly though, host cities have integrated top class music acts into these ceremonies. Some of them have provided one fo the Games' highlights and given worldwide fame to the artists



Winter Games Opening Ceremonies Tickets February 12 2010