The Olympic Flame arrived in the UK on 18 May 2012, bringing with it a message of peace, unity and friendship. In a countdown to the 2012 London Games, the flame will pass through more than 1,000 cities, towns and villages on the 70-day Olympic Torch Relay. It will travel within an hour of 95 percent of the population in the UK, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey as 8,000 torchbearers carry the flame along its winding path to the Olympic Village. The flame will arrive on 27 July in time for the opening ceremony, marking the official start of the Games.
From 21 June, the London 2012 Festival, consisting of more than 12,000 dance, music, theatre, fashion, food, art and film events, is being staged all around the UK. It will run through to the end of the Paralympic Games on 9 September. The festival is the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad, a three-year project intended to inspire creativity in all forms of art and culture through a wide range of events from local projects to large-scale performances.
