The flame is back in Vancouver, but the energetic atmosphere the entire world saw two weeks ago failed to return with it.
With both cauldrons reignited Friday during the Paralympic opening ceremony, the outside viewing venues lacked the same turnout than at the start of the Olympics a month ago.
The crowd that showed up though was tamer and more behaved, with it mostly consisting of families or passerbys hoping to catch the live ceremony action on the big screens.
Lindsay McKillop was at the Livecity Downtown site, a popular gathering spot during the Winter Games, and said she expected more people to show up.
"It feels like everything got scaled back after the Olympics ended, so it's hard to build the momentum back up." said McKillop. "It's hard to end everything and come back to it."
About 300 people were at the downtown venue on Georgia Street and Cambie Street, while another 150 or so watched the broadcast of the opening ceremony at Robson Square.
A little north of the two gathering spots, about 150 people braved the cold weather to catch the automatic lighting of the outdoor cauldron at Jack Poole Plaza. The flame turned on just after 8:30 p.m., in sync with the lighting of the indoor cauldron at B.C. Place.
"It's definitely not as dramatic, but it's still nice," said Wayne Hawrysh, refering to the memorable lighting by Wayne Gretzky a month ago. "This is a little bit lower key."
But the Vancouver native still enjoyed the festivity, having just walked by the cauldron right when it was lit.
"It's nice to have the paralympics have this done for them," he said. "As long as the support is there for the people too, they deserve it."
