Olympic NewsLondon 2012 Cultural Olympiad and Olympic Torch Relay
provided for us by John Clifford, our Publicity and Olympics Liaison officer.
There have been two major announcements about London 2012 during the past week, as well as other news items and opportunities that will interest many voluntary arts practitioners. We will focus on these individually in the coming weeks, but for now here is a brief overview with links to follow for further reading:
- Ruth Mackenzie, director of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, announced her plans for the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad and launched the website www.london2012.com/festival. It's great to see fourteen amateur music groups, all members of Making Music, featured on the website leading and participating in projects that are part of the UK-wide Music Nation event on 3 and 4 March 2012.
- The 1,018 villages, towns and cities through which the Olympic Flame will be carried by Torchbearers during the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay have been announced. Over 95 per cent of the population will be within ten miles of the Olympic Flame. You can view the interactive map at www.london2012.com/olympictorchrelaymap to find your nearest community through which the Olympic Flame will be carried. Martin Green, Head of Ceremonies for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), last week reiterated advice that he gave to Voluntary Arts last year that groups wishing to get involved in local celebrations should contact their Local Authority to ask about their plans.
- LOCOG has launched a public participation programme called Local Leaders. It is an invitation to people across the UK to take the London 2012 Games into their community and create their own celebrations next year, for the Olympic Torch Relay and other key moments during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. People are encouraged to sign up to the Local Leaders programme at www.london2012.com/localleaders to receive further information on a range of themed celebration ideas focusing on the Opening Ceremony evening, gardening, quizzes and barbecues and to be in the front row to receive free London 2012 event materials.
- At 8am on the morning of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, people all across the UK will ring bells to perform Martin Creedï's Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes, a piece specially commissioned as part of the London 2012 Festival. Everyone can take part - from ringers of the largest church and town hall bells, through to hand bells, school bells and bicycle bells, morris dancers and kathak dancers. From the bell ringing community, to community groups, clubs, and individuals with a bell - all are encouraged to participate in this UK-wide celebratory performance. Sign up at www.allthebells.com.
The Olympic Torch Relay
The main applications for the Olympic Torch Relay are now closed but the 'supporting partners' are still open for nominations.For information about 'supporting partners' please go to Presenting Partners on the London 2012 website.
Your side may like to dance at one of the end of day stopping points. To find out where they are, please go to the Where is the Olympic Flame going? page on the London 2012 website.
The flame is said to be an opportunity to show the world our 'cultural legacy' so don't be slow they will book up runners and events very swiftly.
If anyone has links with the 2 official TV channels (BBC and Channel 4) now is the time to use them!
Related event: JMO 2012 - Stratford Upon Avon
JMO event in Stratford Upon Avon, to be held on June 30th 2012,
or open the pdf, Dancing with Will.
Related event: Dinosaurs Not Allowed 2011 - September 24th
Dinosaurs Not Allowed was a great success, 17 sides, 13 of them Open Morris members danced in the warm autumn sunshine to the delight of the hoards of tourists and locals.