It is not just the sporty types and party animals who will rejoice at the prospect of the Olympics: culture buffs will also have their fair share of arty pleasures, in the form of the London 2012 Festival. This celebration of British creativity, deemed to become the UK’s biggest ever festival, will feature leading names such as Cate Blanchett, David Hockney, Mike Leigh, Jude Law and Damon Albarn. Quite a line up indeed…
iPad painting created especially by David HockneyYes, us Londoners will assiduously party the night away and feverishly watch the Games in 2012. But the Olympics will also be a chance to get a dose of more arty pleasures, in the form of the London 2012 Festival, with a line up that includes a Nobel Prize winner, a Brit Award winner, two Turner Prize winners, an Academy Award winner, a Golden Globe winner and three BAFTA Award winners- no less… Organised to celebrate London 2012 and British creativity through dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, film and digital innovation, the celebration will be the UK’s biggest ever festival, with 1,000 events organised -most of them free- and over three million people expected to attend. Its impressive list of participants, announced on December 7, includes big names such as actors Jude Law and Cate Blanchett, film director Mike Leigh, musician Damon Albarn and artist David Hockney. The 12-week UK-wide cultural festival -running alongside the Games from 21 June to 9 September 2012- will mark the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. This program started in 2008 and designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012, has already become the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic Movement.
The opening event will be a Peace One Day production in Derry-Londonderry, featuring actor Jude Law, twice nominated for the Academy Awards. Other highlights will include a Martin Crimp’s new stage adaptation of Gross und Klein, featuring Golden Globe winner Cate Blanchett, also known to the younger public as Elf Queen Galadriel in Lord Of The Rings. There will also be a specially created musical work from Gorillaz’ co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, in collaboration with award-winning theatre director Rufus Norris, as well as a new dance production by Akram Khan, who createdSacred Monsters with ballerina Sylvie Guillem and In-I,a duet with actress Juliette Binoche with visual design by Anish Kapoor. On the visual arts side, the prestigious series of eventswill include special commissions by contemporary artists Rachel Whiteread and Olafur Eliasson, as well as major exhibitions by arts giants David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts and Lucian Freud at the National Portrait Gallery. Quite a program…
