Opera House - Open Day

It was a crowded house yesterday at Bennelong Point - and a different kind of crowd - when the Opera House staged its biggest open day.

As a dinosaur stalked the forecourt, the queue for tours snaked back to Macquarie Street. With backstage areas open for public tours for the first time, more than 50,000 people swarmed the building - 20,000 in the first hour. Many had never been inside before.

The Opera House chief executive, Richard Evans, said he hoped people who would not ordinarily visit the venue would take away ''a little part of the secret of the Opera House''.

''There's a lot of people who think it's all about opera, ballet and symphony,'' he said. ''Hopefully people will think about the Opera House differently.''

David Astalosh, 19, took the opportunity to venture onto the Concert Hall stage. ''You can see all the photos and postcards … but until you experience the magic inside you really don't appreciate the grandeur,'' he said.

Kim Arlington