Finally, the much awaited and the final line-up of the London 2012 Festival has been announced. Comedian Tim Minchin and Stephen Fry are the latest names to join the Olympic arts celebrations. Some of the exciting event include the landmark dance event in Glasgow and also a comedy barge trip from London to Edinburg. The arts festival will last at a stretch of 12 weeks, which will be the climax of the four year Cultural Olympiad with 12,000 events taking place.
The major festival will bring together the major spectacles and the smaller events. Festival director Ruth Mackenzie at the launch event on April 26 at the Tower of London said the festival would “showcase the best in international culture when the eyes of the world are on us this summer”. Jeremy Hunt the Embattled culture secretary was also present at the launch and said that Britain’s arts institutions would be in the global spotlight as never before.
The festival is all set to begin on Midsummer’s Day, on 21 June and will run through 9 September, which will be the end of the Paralympic Games. The organizers have also announced that 10 million free tickets are available across UK. Some of the latest arrivals in the programme include the two week long comedic commentary, ‘Playing the Commentary’, which will be held at the Games at London Criterion Theatre. Mackenzie assured that it is all going to be pretty wild and that Stephen has been a great fan of this Olympics from the bid onwards.
Tim Minchin will be performing at a concert at Cornwall’s Eden project. A new children’s opera has been created by Terry Jones and Anne Dudley, who have named it ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ that will travel through London’s canals.
