Alan Ayckbourn, Julie Walters & More Among Stars of London 2012 Festival Week 5, Beg. July 18

Scissor Sisters, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Alan Ayckbourn, Daniel Barenboim, Rokia Traoré, Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars, Paco Peña, Simon Russell Beale, Hugh Masekela, Angelique Kidjo, Gong Linna, Sung Hwan Kim, Tom Hiddleston, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Tracey Emin, and Bridget Riley are among the stars of London 2012 Festival's fifth week.

On the weekend before the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games major London 2012 Festival events are set to showcase London as a world leader for cultural tourism. The celebrations for the London 2012 Festival’s fifth week feature music, art, carnival, dance, theatre and performance programmes bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK.

Among the key highlights are: 160,000 free tickets to see International Artists perform at BT River of Music; Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performing at BBC Proms 2012; newly commissioned installations and a performance programme to mark the unveiling of The Tanks at Tate Modern; the largest and most spectacular carnival art piece ever seen in the UK at One Hackney Festival; BMW Art Cars transformed by the world’s leading artists; and Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller’s life-size inflatable replica of Stonehenge arriving in London.

Festival events launching in London in the lead-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games:

BT River of Music, a spectacular global summit of rhythm and song, presents 160,000 free opportunities for people to experience one of the most ambitious musical events ever staged in the capital. Taking place at six landmark venues along the River Thames, it features more than 1,500 artists from all Olympic and Paralympic nations, and acts as a curtain-raiser for the sporting celebrations that will follow during the Olympic Games. Star performers include: Scissor Sisters, Noisettes, South African legend Hugh Masekela, Grammy-award winning Angelique Kidjo, former Buena Vista Social Club pianist Roberto Fonseca, Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Chinese superstar Gong Linna, the world's greatest living tabla player Zakir Hussain, and Senegalese singer and guitarist Baaba Maal. Free tickets are available via www.btriverofmusic.com (21 – 22 July 2012).

BBC Proms, the world’s biggest classical music festival, this year forms part of the London 2012 Festival. The eight-week season of concert and events launched on 13 July and features the world’s leading artists and orchestras, the largest number of new commissions for a Proms season, record youth participation and a celebration of London and composers and pieces considered to have changed the world, such as Beethoven, Boulez, and Cage. A major highlight of this year’s Proms is a series inspired by the theme of Olympic Truce featuring Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an organisation that famously brings together Arab and Israeli players to form 'an orchestra against ignorance'. Barenboim directs his first complete Beethoven symphony cycle in London, culminating with a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on the opening day of the Olympics on July 27. The orchestra will also perform significant works by another revolutionary composer, Pierre Boulez, one of the most influential figures in contemporary music of the past 60 years (20 – 27 July 2012).

More Articles by This Author...