2012 Cultural Olympiad events announced

The 2012 Cultural Olympiad has been announced and events will take place throughout the UK from 21 June until the last day of the Paralympics, 9 September. Ruth Mackenzie, director of the Cultural Olympiad, said that many events would be free, and that “the festival will offer a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be inspired by the best in the world”.

Events will range across the arts, from music, dance, theatre, opera and film to literature, the visual arts and fashion, and some will include a chance for arts fans to participate in the creation of an artwork.

The highlight of the opening events, on midsummer's day, will be Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in Stirling; the Venezuelans will be joined by young Scots who have been learning instruments in a Scottish version of El Sistema, while a new annual festival dedicated to the work of Samuel Beckett will be inaugurated in Ennsikillen. The RSC, Shakespeare's Globe and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru will all have Cultural Olympiad events in 2012.

Posters for the Olympics - designed by, among others, Martin Creed, Howard Hodgkin, Bridget Riley and Rachel Whiteread - go on sale today and will be shown in a free exhibition at Tate Britain next summer.

Other events, including pop and comedy performances, and tie-ups with the Proms, the National Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival, will be announced when those organisations launch their 2012 programmes next spring.

Full details at the London 2012 Festival website