Aussies gear up for the big party

By GREG ANSLEY Herald correspondent

CANBERRA - The partying has already started for the World Cup.

With organisers promising a whoopee of an opening ceremony before the Australia-Argentina game gets thing going on Friday, cities around the country are gearing up for some serious fun.



On Saturday Sydney and Brisbane kicked off with Pacific festivals as the World Choir - representing every competing country - arrived in Australia.



Tomorrow, the lights go on in the nation's biggest city.

Cup illuminations will light up Sydney Harbour Bridge and thousands of pansies - planted in the shape of scrums and lineouts - are brightening downtown flower beds.

Martin Place will be draped in international art as a "stairway - to the game they play in heaven".

On Friday, the World Cup will be opened with a high-tech spectacular incorporating 300 lights, 18 state-of-the-art projectors and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra seated on a moving stage.



When the semifinals begin, the games will be relayed live to vast TV screens at The Rocks, Darling Harbour and Sydney Olympic Park, where there will also be street theatre and other free entertainment.



In Melbourne, where rugby is normally a faint echo behind Aussie rules and where the All Blacks will be based in relative obscurity, the opening will be celebrated with a whoopee at Federation Square and with a series of later events.



Similar parties will rock Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide - which will hold two major street parties to coincide with games being played there - and Canberra will light up its skyline with illuminated federal buildings and its social life with street theatre and dinner and lunch functions.



Even the smaller centres are getting in on the act. The Queensland rural city of Townsville, for example, will greet the full moon and the opening ceremony on Friday with a full-on lunar party and a traditional full moon drumming circle involving up to 50 drummers.