A rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony took place earlier this week

It's the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic games! Brace yourselves for a wonderful time.

Latest news and rumours about what the Opening Ceremony will include

• The opening ceremony of Rio 2016, at the Maracana football stadium, will start at midnight UK time and is expected to last three to four hours
• Three-thousand people have already seen a dress rehearsal ahead of Friday's showpiece event, with details about what happens during the ceremony being made public through social media.
• Its three themes will be ecology, diversity and joy, and organisers have tried to manage expectations by saying it will be “cool” but not as grand as London or Beijing’s. The budget was just £3m, around one tenth of the cost of the London 2012 opener

Top 5 | Facts about the Olympic Opening Ceremony

1. The first Olympic Games overseen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were held in 1896, but an opening ceremony didn't feature until London hosted the event in 1908
2. The Parade of Nations now kicks off each Olympic Games. According to tradition, the Greek team always leads the way, followed by the remaining teams in alphabetical order (according to the language of the host nation) with the team representing the host country bringing up the rear
3. From 1920, doves were released following the lighting of the Olympic flame, to symbolise peace. But this tradition stopped in 1988 after some of the birds were burned alive by the flame.
4. Each team is introduced in French and English - the two official languages of the IOC
5. In 1908, Finland was part of the Russian Empire, but the team refused to carry a Russian flag during the Parade of Nations