and Mary Longden, an Equestrian Referee, taking the oath on behalf of the officials. The Paralympic torch relay final legs were held until ending with Louise Sauvage who lit the cauldron. The closing ceremony took place on Sunday 29 October at 7.30 pm. The athletes intermingled with other nations and took to the stage for a party filled with fire, emotion and celebration. As there were several uncertainties about whether Athens was able to host the next games, they had not yet signed the host city contract and were in the midst of public disagreements between the IPC itself and the IOC over delays related a lot of legal issues.Due this, several changes were made to the protocol. The first was that the Greek hymn was not performed during the ceremonies andand no reference to the city and the country was made in all acts, performances and the final speeches. As a sign of repudiation of the heaviest criticisms made so far by international entities, the Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games(ATHOC) and the then greek governament, boycotted the ceremonies in a counterpart action. As a sign of goodwill for the resumption of talks between all stakeholders, the Athens was responsible for mediating the conflict, sending a small delegation to Sydney, led by the then deputy mayor Nikos Yiatrakos who received the Paralympic flag on behalf of all of Greece (since the protocol determined that the Greek Paralympic Committee would receive the flag, but it did not exist until the following year). implying that Greece had accepted the criticisms about the organization of the Paralympics and was open to talking and negotiating the resolution of the issues that still prevented the legal security of the 2004 Summer Paralympics.To ensure there wasn't a gap in this part of the ceremony, the Australian producers invited the Millennium Choir of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia to perform some typical Greek music. The music chosen by the conductor was "Tis ikiosinis ilie" ("Sun of Justice" from the movie soundtrack Zorba,the Greek written and composed by Mikis Theodorakis during the handover ceremony). To close the ceremonies, the first Australian group to make international success outside the country, The Seekers, closed the games with "The Carnival Is Over". Due an accident some days before the event and a broken hip, the singer Judith Durham sang the song sitting in a wheelchair. Calendar In the