Cultural Olympiad
T482155910
The CULTURAL OLYMPIAD is a four-year programme that will highlight the country's diversity by using both culture and sport to create works and events that will bring people and places together, encourage audiences to take part, involve and inspire young people, welcome the world to the 2012 Games and create a lasting legacy. The launch weekend for the Cultural Olympiad, Friday 26 - Sunday 28 September, is themed 'Open Weekend' with hundreds of events taking place across the country. Cultural organisations across the country are kicking off the celebrations with many institutions and organisations offering the public the chance to see or take part in something which is happening as a special event, or that would normally take place behind the scenes.
Archive :: production:T482155910, festival:S1503478713, venue:V423
Production details
Between Friday 26 - Sunday 28 September, Southbank Centre celebrates the launch of the Cultural Olympiad with a full weekend of free performances, exhibitions and participative events, that range from Billy Bragg's Big and an insightful series of Open Rehearsals with some of the world's finest musicians to the poignant Art by Offenders- The Koestler Awards Exhibition featuring artworks by prisoners from across the UK (Saturday 27 September - Friday 7 November), Spirit Level in Royal Festival Hall). Attracting hundreds of budding buskers in 2007 at the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall celebrations in June, songwriting legend Billy Bragg invited audiences to celebrate some of the country’s much-loved vocal anthems in a mass sing-along, including Waterloo Sunset and Common People. On Saturday 27 September at 5pm, Billy returns, encouraging audiences to fill their lungs, blast out a song and strum their guitars in a gigantic open air busk to herald the start of the four-year celebration of culture, in the lead up to the Olympics. On Friday 26th audiences are offered the opportunity to get behind the scenes and witness the London Philharmonic Orchestra and its’ principal conductor, Vladimir Jurowski rehearse music by Strauss and Brahms (Friday 26 September, 10am, Royal Festival Hall). Following this, the Philharmonia Orchestra rehearses Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, one of the most virtuosic and evocative works in the orchestral repertoire (3.30pm Royal Festival Hall). Innovative UK Jazz collective Tomorrow’s Warriors explore Duke Ellington’s The Queen’s Suite in the Front Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall (2pm) before a performance that evening (5.30pm). On Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September, the site and spaces linking areas along the South Bank of the Thames are explored and revealed by young performers in Quicksilver a public art performance created with members of The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs. With a rare opportunity to watch world renowned musician Viktoria Mullova and her ensemble in a pre-concert rehearsal (Saturday 12 - 2pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall) and a mass Gamelan gathering and Wayang puppet-making workshops (Saturday 27, Royal Festival Hall, Level 2 foyer 10-6pm)
