Thousands Of Fans Reclaim Park Plaza Reopens Following Memorial Service Celebrating ‘Triumph’

With a burst of water from a five-ringed fountain and a moving memorial service in honor of bombing victims, Centennial Olympic Park sprang back to life Tuesday as tens of thousands of people swarmed into the plaza seeking to revive the festive atmosphere of the Games.

After being shut down in the wake of an explosion early Saturday that left two people dead and more than 100 injured, the 21-acre fairground that blossomed from a dilapidated ghetto was hailed by the Atlanta organizers as a metaphor for the city’s resilience.

“We’re here not to wallow in tragedy, but to celebrate a triumph of the human spirit,” said Andrew Young, co-chairman of the Atlantic Committee for the Olympic Games, at the brief memorial service attended by about 30,000 people. “We say to those who suffered here, we assure you that your suffering is not in vain.”

Despite a torrent of criticism over transportation problems, computer glitches and security troubles at the Games, Young declared that the reclaiming of the park from the terror that struck at a pre-dawn concert would come to symbolize the will and spirit of all athletes, officials and spectators to make the Centennial Olympics a rousing success.

“This has been, in every sense of the word, a people’s park,” he said. “We’re sure the 21st century will remember the joy of humanity, the wonderful sense of celebration, the vitality of the people from every race, religion and national origin that gathered in this park and will define the future.”

After a gospel choir sang “The Power of the Dream,” Young and his fellow chairman, Billy Payne, called for a moment of silence in honor of the victims. Joined on the dais by American swimming star Janet Evans and Juan Antonio Samaranch, the head of the International Olympic Committee, the two men who brought the 1996 Games to Atlanta proclaimed the park open once again to the public.

Within hours, the crowds that had been cordoned off for the past three days streamed back, moving in a sprawling tapestry past commercial exhibits and interactive theme parks run by Olympic sponsors such as Coca Cola and Xerox. They gorged on everything from corn dogs to Jamaican jerk chicken, as a succession of singing groups, from Zimbabwe’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo to Louisiana’s Buckwheat Zydeco, took turns on stage throughout the day.

“You’ve got to fight for your right to party, man,” said Isaac Tigrett, owner of the “House of Blues” night club across the street from the park. “You can’t let something like a bombing get you down.” Tigrett had persuaded soul singer James Brown, whose show at the nightclub was aborted by the blast early Saturday, to return Sunday night and complete his performance as a way to demonstrate that “the spirit of the park will not die.”

Many of the early visitors to the park headed straight for the site of the explosion at a light tower to the left of the stage. The 4-foot crater caused by the bomb had been filled up and covered with fresh turf. The spot soon became a makeshift shrine, as visitors laid down a carpet of yellow, red and white carnations to honor the victims.

Leslie Hines, of Lexington, Ky., who was slightly wounded by shrapnel when the bomb exploded, decided to return to the site as a personal test of putting the trauma behind her.

“I had a little bit of a relapse, some feelings of fear. But I thought it was important not to stay away because it would mean the creeps who did this would feel like they won.”