Olympic cauldron lit to celebrate new restaurant

Vancouver's Olympic Cauldron will be relit on Wednesday evening to celebrate the opening of a new restaurant on top of the Vancouver Convention Centre.

The cauldron is located in the Jack Poole Plaza, next to the new 500-seat Cactus Club restaurant, which is paying more than $5,000 to have it lit for the restaurant's opening tonight.

In the past, the cauldron has been relit for Canada Day celebrations. A plaque on the cauldron says it "will be lit to celebrate major achievements and events."

The cauldron is managed by the Vancouver Convention Centre which is run by the B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the crown corporation also responsible for running BC Place.

A spokeperson for the convention centre released a statement saying they consider "requests to light the cauldron in conjunction with events at our facility."

"The minimum charge is $5,000 for up to four hours, calculated from the time the cauldron is lit until it is extinguished. An administrative fee of 5 per cent is also applied. This fee covers all cauldron-related expenses."

"In this case, Cactus Club Restaurants are covering the costs associated with the lighting to celebrate the opening of their restaurant on the Jack Poole Plaza."

The four-armed glass and steel cauldron was built to reflect the 2010 Games theme of fire on ice and was first lit during opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver by hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.

A chainlink fence designed to keep visitors away generated widespread outrage during the games, prompting the Olympic organizing committee to redesign the security measures.

It was built by the Terasen Gas, now called FortisBC, in partnership with the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic organizing committees.