Summer Olympics 2012

The Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival

The eyes of the world will turn to London in the summer of 2012, for the Olympic and Paralympic games – the greatest shows on Earth. And we want to seize this opportunity, to dazzle and impress with the best of British arts, too. London is the world capital of culture – this is our chance to put on the show of a lifetime. Next summer we will be in the middle of the London 2012 Festival when, from June 21 to September 9, leading artists from this country, and around the world, will take part in a UK-wide summer celebration.

This festival is the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad which was part of our promise to the International Olympic Committee when we won the Games in 2005. The Cultural Olympiad was the idea of Pierre de Coubertin, the inventor of the modern games. He had a vision of a global Olympic movement, combining sport, culture and education. And of course Britain is internationally-renowned for arts and culture.

The Cultural Olympiad is a four-year project to encourage people (especially the young) to become involved in arts and culture. It also aims to enable community-led projects to take place that wouldn’t have happened without the spur of the Games. Take, for example, the Lakes Alive spectacular on Windermere, which brought £3m into the local community last year alone. Next year this will be one of the first events to kick off the London 2012 Festival – a free light and fire spectacular.

They worked with Aardman Animations, maker of Wallace & Gromit, and used the latest animation technology. Tate asked children to vote online for which celebrities they wanted to play the cameo roles. They voted for the cream of British comedy, including David Walliams, Miranda Hart, Catherine Tate and Rik Mayall. The film has already been seen on the BBC and will be shown on London 2012 Live Sites in Trafalgar Square and in cities across the UK.

Another central part of the Cultural Olympiad has been London 2012 Open Weekend, supported by BP. This year’s event is set to be the biggest and best yet. There have been 2.4 million participants in Open Weekend since 2008, and in 2011 people have the choice of participating in more than 1,200 events taking place across the UK, including a celebration of Jamaican culture in Birmingham, a floating cinema navigating the Olympic Park waterways, and a culture takeover of Aberdeen by the National Theatre of Scotland, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Aberdeen Performing Arts.

2012 Summer Olympics venue guide: Wimbledon (Yahoo! Contributor ...

Wimbledon is located in southwest London and has a population of approximately 57,000. It is also home to New Wimbledon Theatre, which opened in 1910, and Wimbledon Common, one of the largest pieces of common land in London.

The historic club was founded in 1868 as the All England Croquet Club; the sport of lawn tennis was introduced in 1875, with the first men's singles championships held in 1877. The Wimbledon Championship is not only the oldest tennis tournament in the world, it has gone on to become one of the most prestigious titles in tennis as well as one of the four Grand Slam tournaments.

Wimbledon has 19 tournament courts, the largest of which is Centre Court. Built in 1922, the court seats 15,000 and was fitted with a retractable roof in 2009. Two smaller courts on site, No. 1 Court and No. 2 Court, seat 11,500 and 4,000 spectators respectively; No. 1 Court was built in 1997, while No. 2 Court was built in 2009.

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London will be taking place just three weeks after the Wimbledon Championship, specifically July 28 . There are five medal events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles; this will be the first appearance of mixed doubles at the Olympics since 1924.

Fans interested in attending a match at Wimbledon may want to take the London Underground or National Rail, both of which have stations near the venue.

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