Thousands attended the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Centennial Olympic Games on Saturday, July 15. The event began in the early evening as volunteers from the Atlanta Games met at designated areas around Centennial Olympic Park to reunite with their fellow volunteers from ten years ago. After an evening full of reminiscing and live local music, the program began with emcee Bob Costas, the voice of the Olympic Games for 18 years. He introduced video clips documenting changes in Atlanta over the last ten years, the emotional 1990 announcement that Atlanta would host the games and many triumphant moments from the 1996 Olympic competition.

Special appearances were made during the evening by 1996 Olympians Janet Evans and Carl Lewis, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Billy Payne, the man who originally thought Atlanta should bid on the Olympics and who served as president and chief executive officer of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Trisha Yearwood, rounded out the program with a lively performance. The multi-platinum, multi-Grammy award-winning Georgia Native performed at the closing ceremonies in 1996. The evening culminated with an extravagant fireworks display signifying this tremendous event in Atlanta history.