Editing Millennium Dome (section)

== Millennium Experience ==
[[File:Show at the Dome - geograph.org.uk - 7512.jpg|thumb|right|The Millennium Dome Show, October 2000]]
[[File:MillenniumDomeAtNight(ChristineMatthews)Sep2000.jpg|right|thumb|The Millennium Dome at night, September 2000]]

After a private opening on the evening of 31 December 1999, including a [[New Year's Eve]] celebration attended by [[Queen Elizabeth II]], the Millennium Experience at the Dome was open to the public for the whole of 2000, and contained a large number of attractions and exhibits.

=== Millennium Dome Show ===
{{main|Millennium Dome Show}}
The English musician [[Peter Gabriel]] issued in 2000 [[The Story of OVO]] which was released in a CD-booklet-shaped [[comic book]] as part of the CD edition with the title "[[OVO (album)#Release|OVO The Millennium Show]]". The story of the 2000 [[Millennium Dome Show]] based on it.<ref name="TheStoryOfOVO">{{Cite book| last=Gabriel| first= Peter| title= The Story of OVO| publisher= Peter Gabriel Ltd.| language= English| year= 2000| isbn=0-9520864-3-3}}</ref> The show opened on 1 January 2000 and was performed 999 times before closing on 31 December of that year. ''sponsored by [[Walt Disney World]]''.

=== Exhibits ===
[[File:Millennium Dome entrance area (London) mid-2000.ogv|thumb|A short clip inside the Millennium Dome in London, mid 2000. Shows some of the interior, a robot figure, inside of the brain exhibit.]]
The interior space was subdivided into 14 ''zones'': "Who We Are" (Body, Faith, Mind and Self-Portrait), "What We Do" (Work, Learning, Rest, Play, Talk, Money and Journey) and "Where We Live" (Shared Ground,<ref>{{cite book|title=Millennium Experience|id=[[European Article Number|EAN]] [http://www.ean-search.org/perl/ean-search.pl?q=5060006651519 5060006651519]|page=60}}</ref> Living Island and Home Planet).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deamer |first1=Peggy |title=Architecture and Capitalism: 1845 to the Present |date=18 July 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-04955-3 |page=192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AWUdAAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>

Surrounded by the zones was a performance area in the centre of the dome. With music composed by [[Peter Gabriel]] and an acrobatic cast of 160, the [[Millennium Dome Show]] was performed 999 times over the course of the year. Throughout the year, the specially-commissioned film ''[[Blackadder: Back & Forth]]'' was shown in Skyscape (a separate cinema on the site sponsored by [[BSkyB]]).<ref>[http://wwp.millennium-dome.com/dome/zones/skyscape.htm SkyScape] Greenwich 2000</ref> There was also the [[McDonald's]] ''Our Town Story'' project in which each [[Local Education Authority]] in the UK was invited to perform a show of their devising which characterised their area and its people.

As well as the above, the first ever series of ''[[Techno Games]]'' was filmed there and shown on [[BBC Two]] the same year.

=== Other attractions ===
There were a number of other attractions both in and outside of The Dome. Inside the Dome there was a play area named Timekeepers of the Millennium (featuring the characters Coggsley and Sprinx), The Millennium Coin Minting Press in association with the [[Royal Mint]], the 1951 [[Festival of Britain]] Bus, and the [[Millennium Star|Millennium Star Jewels]] (focus of the failed [[Millennium Dome raid|Millennium Diamond heist]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1827559.stm|title=Timeline: Dome diamond heist|access-date=30 June 2008 | work=BBC News | date=18 February 2002}}</ref>) Outside was the Millennium Map (thirteen metres; 43' high), the Childhood Cube, ''Looking Around'' (a hidden installation), Greenwich Pavilion, the Hanging Gardens at the front of the Dome, as well as a number of other art installations and sculptures.

Two of the remaining art installations form the start of The Line, a modern art trail connecting the O2 to the [[Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Homepage - The Line - London's public art walk|url=https://the-line.org/|access-date=3 February 2021|website=The Line}}</ref>

=== Financial and management problems ===
{{Quote box
 |quote  = At worst it is a millennial metaphor for the twentieth century. An age in which all things, like the Dome itself, became disposable. A century in which forest and cities, marriages, animal species, races, religions and even the Earth itself, became ephemeral. What more cynical monument can there be for this totalitarian cocksure fragile age than a vast temporary plastic bowl, erected from the aggregate contribution of the poor through the National Lottery. Despite the spin, it remains a massive pantheon to the human ego, the [[Ozymandias]] of its time.<ref>''[[Sunday Times]]''. 1 February 1998.</ref><ref>Off message. Bob Marshall-Andrews</ref>{{nonspecific|reason=Does this refer to his book, or is that the title given to his letter to/article in (whatever it is) the Sunday Times?|date=February 2022}}
 |source = [[Bob Marshall-Andrews]] MP, ''[[Sunday Times]]'' 1 February 1998
 |width = 30em
}}

The project was largely reported by the press to have been a failure. During 2000, the organisers repeatedly asked for, and received, more cash from the [[Millennium Commission]], the Lottery body which supported it.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Millennium Dome: Report - Value for money |url=https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/the-millennium-dome/ |website=[[National Audit Office (United Kingdom)|National Audit Office]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=9 November 2000 |quote=In the face of the severe shortfall in the Company's revenue, during the year 2000 the Millennium Commission has approved four additional grants totalling £179 million}}</ref> There where numerous changes at management and board level, before and during the exhibition;<ref name=NAOReport/>{{rp|58–59}} [[Jennifer Page (Millennium Dome)|Jennifer Page]] was sacked as chief executive of the New Millennium Experience Company just one month after the dome's opening.<ref>{{cite news | title = My Crown of Thorns | publisher =Guardian News and Media | work = The Guardian | date = 4 May 2000 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/may/04/dome.millennium1 | access-date = 26 July 2008 | first=Jennifer | last=Page | location=London}}</ref> The project came to be seen as closely aligned with [[Tony Blair]]'s [[New Labour]], making its success or failure politically important.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Imogen West-Knights |title=Was the Millennium Dome really so bad? The inside story of a (not so) total disaster |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/12/millennium-dome-experience-disaster-inside-story-new-labour |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=12 March 2020 |quote=Here, perhaps, was a chance to make a physical monument to everything that New Labour Britain would be about ... "New Labour really did think it was going to be some sort of quasi-political, sociological experience that would underpin everything that they were about," the exhibition designer Peter Higgins told me incredulously}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Labour's White Elephant |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1718293.stm |website=[[BBC News]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=18 December 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Nicholas Watt |title=Dome too ambitious admits Blair |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/sep/25/uk.tonyblair |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=25 September 2000}}</ref> Part of the problem was that the financial predictions were based on an unrealistically high forecast of visitor numbers at 12 million. During the first year that it was open there were approximately 6.5 million visitors – significantly fewer than the approximately 10 million paying visitors that attended the [[Festival of Britain]], which only ran from May to September.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1098465.stm |title=Dome visitor total way off target |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 February 2022 |date=3 January 2001}}</ref> [[Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938]], held in Glasgow, attracted more than 12 million visitors, being open May to October.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Empire Exhibition Collection |url=https://libcat.csglasgow.org/web/arena/empire-exhibition |website=Glasgow Libraries Online |access-date=2 September 2024}}</ref> Unlike the press, visitor feedback was positive; as of August 2000, 87% of visitors said they were satisfied with their visit.<ref name=NAOReport>{{cite web |title=The Millennium Dome: Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General |url=https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2000/11/9900936.pdf |website=[[National Audit Office (United Kingdom)|National Audit Office]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=9 November 2000}}</ref>{{rp|41–42}} It was the most popular admission-paying tourist attraction in 2000, with almost twice as many visitors as the second most visited attraction, [[Alton Towers]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Dome was UK's most popular visitor attraction |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jan/03/dome |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=3 January 2001}}</ref>

According to the UK [[National Audit Office (United Kingdom)|National Audit Office]], the cost of The Dome at the liquidation of the New Millennium Experience Company in 2002 was £789 million, of which £628 million was covered by National Lottery grants and £189 million through sales of tickets etc.<ref>{{cite press release | title = Winding-up the New Millennium Experience Company Limited | publisher = National Audit Office | date = 17 April 2002 | url = http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/01-02/0102749.htm | access-date = 3 January 2007 | archive-date = 23 October 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081023164235/http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/01-02/0102749.htm | url-status = dead }}</ref> A surplus of £25 million over costs meant that the full lottery grant was not required. The £603 million of lottery money was still £204 million in excess of the original estimate of £399 million required, due to the shortfall in visitor numbers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.millennium.gov.uk/lottery/experience.html |title=Experience |publisher=New Millennium Experience Company |access-date=4 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070624075018/http://www.millennium.gov.uk/lottery/experience.html |archive-date=24 June 2007 }}</ref>