New artists and hosts confirmed for Olympic Handover Celebrations

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman and Matt Baker, Olympians including Dame Mary Peters, Roger Black, Sally Gunnell, Jason Gardener, and Sharron Davies will also attend to help mark the moment when London becomes the official Summer Olympic City.

On 24 August 40,000 people will gather in The Mall to watch performances from multi-million-selling artists including The Feeling, Il Divo, Katherine Jenkins, McFly, Will Young, James Morrison, Scouting for Girls, and now by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Heather Small, and the cast of We Will Rock You.

Featuring unique collaborations and specially arranged performances, some with a sporting theme, the show from the Mall will link up with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Closing Ceremony at which London Mayor Boris Johnson will be symbolically handed the Olympic flag, officially marking the start of London’s tenure as Summer Host City in front of a worldwide audience estimated to be around 1.5 billion.

Tickets have already been allocated via a ballot, which was oversubscribed, but the public will be able to watch the performances via the UK’s largest-ever network of public giant screens, known as ‘Live Sites’. The event will also be broadcast live to the rest of the nation on BBC One and BBC Radio 2.

London 2012 Organising Committee Chairman Sebastian Coe said: 'At approximately 2.30pm UK time, on the afternoon of 24 August the Olympic Flag will pass from the Mayor of Beijing to the Mayor of London in the Olympic Stadium in Beijing and the eyes of the world will turn to us. This will be a thrilling moment.'

Colin Grannell, Executive Vice-President, Partnership Marketing at Visa Europe, said: 'As a global supporter of the Olympic Games for more than two decades we at Visa are proud to sponsor an historic and memorable event for people to celebrate the return of the Games to London after sixty years.'

Sophie Ellis-Bextor said: 'It is such an honour to be performing at this event. This is such a big occasion and I am very excited about the Paralympic Olympic Games and Summer Olympic Games coming to London.'

Heather Small said: 'Helping to mark the moment when London becomes the official host city for the next Summer Olympic Games is very exciting, and I'm delighted to be a part of it.'

Sally Gunnell said: 'To see the Olympic Games come to London is a childhood dream, and I am very excited about the Olympic Handover Celebrations happening in The Mall.'

Jason Gardener said: 'I think the celebrations on Sunday 24 August will be fantastic, and a great way to announce to the world that London is hosting the next Summer Olympic Games.'

The Beijing Games will be the first ever 24/7 Olympic Games. BBC Television will broadcast more than 2,750 hours of coverage, giving viewers access to live coverage, the latest news updates regardless of the time of day and where they are, through the BBC's extensive TV, radio, online, mobile and BBC iPlayer services.

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For further information please contact:

Sameena Rizwi at Freud Communications Sameena.Rizwi@freud.com

The London 2012 Press Office on +44 (0)203 2012 100 

Media accreditation

Media wishing to attend the event must apply for accreditation in advance. Please ensure your application has been submitted by 12:00pm on Thursday 21 August 2008.

Please contact the following people to request media accreditation:

TV & Radio Media: Nikki Williamson / 0203 003 6448 / nicola.williamson@freud.com

Print & Online Media: Tessa David, 0203 003 6419/ tessa.david@freud.com

Photography Media: Sameena Rizwi / 0203 003 6552/ sameena.rizwi@freud.com

Notes to Editors

The Live Site screens will represent a major legacy from London 2012 with the fixed locations planning to operate not just for the four years up to 2012, but for many years afterwards. They will carry a range of local information, news, cultural, sporting, education and community events and content. Moving forward, the screens will also have interactive capabilities which will enable cities to link to each other.

Screen breakdown

Live site permanent screens are located in Manchester, Rotherham, Bradford, Derby, Swindon, Liverpool, Birmingham, Hull, Leeds, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Norwich, Middlesbrough, Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol, Cumbria and Waltham Forest. This project is a unique collaboration between LOCOG, its partners in the project the Olympic Lottery Distributor, Lloyds TSB, BT, the cities and the BBC. Live site screens will be used during the Games and for Handover.

Additional screens will be erected for the 2008 Games in Canary Wharf (London) and Leicester.

Further screens will also be operating for the handover day in Belfast, Glasgow, Notting Hill, Weymouth, Hackney, Greenwich, Coventry, Kettering, Southend-on-Sea, Herne Bay, Tower Hamlets and Great Yarmouth and other areas funded by local authorities and organisations.

Sing the Nation

A festival to unite the UK in song this August: all kinds of people singing all kinds of music in all kinds of places. There will be singing in museums, libraries, parks abbeys and city centres. All events are participatory. Museum events range from Songs of London at the Museum of London to Sing Yorkshire in Rotherham.

Sing the Nation culminates on August 24th’Olympic Handover ceremonies when regions across the UK will hold mass city sings led by community choirs. From Glasgow to Cardiff, people across the UK will lift their voices. The result is expected to be the UK’s biggest singalong.

Each city will sing one regional song which connects to that location: Danny Boy in Ulster…I do like to be beside the seaside in Blackpool; Derby Ram in Derby…. Delila in Swansea… Maybe it’s Because I’m a Londoner in Walthamstow and Greenwich.

Cities taking part in the City sings include: Middlesbrough; Glasgow; Portsmouth; Manchester; Norwich; Hull; Bradford; Coventry; Derby; Birmingham; Swansea; London; Leicester; Blackpool.

Sing the Nation is delivered by Sing London, a not for profit company who delivered Sing London in 2007. Sing the Nation is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, LOCOG and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Olympic Handover Flag

414 Local Authorities throughout the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands will be flying the Olympic Handover Flags to celebrate the moment when London becomes the next Summer Olympic Host City, on Sunday 24th August.

Olympic Handover Flags will be flown at MOD/Service locations in: Royal Artillery Barracks Woolwich, Mitcham Road Barracks in Croydon, School of Physical Training in Aldershot and Colchester Garrison.

Olympic Handover Flags will be flown at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Overseas Missions in : Abuja, Addis Abba, Ankara, Astana Bangkok , Banjul ,Berlin , Beijing, Boston ,Brasilia, Brussels , Bridgetown Canberra, Cape Town, Chicago , Colombo, Dakar, Dar Es Salaam, Doha, Dushanbe, Gabarone, Havana, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kabul, Kingston, Kolkata, Latvia, Lisbon, Lima, Lilongwe, Luxembourg, Luanda, Lusaka, Madrid, Montserrat, Mexico City, Montevideo, Munich, Muscat Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Panama City, Port Moresby Quito, Reykjavik, Rio, Sao Paulo, Santiago, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Stockholm, St Petersburg, Suva, Tokyo, Valleta, Vancouver, Victoria, Wellington, Yaounde, and Yerevan.

Olympic Handover Flags will be flown at the British Councils offices in: Bahrain, England, Ghana, India, Jordan, Japan, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Thailand, Taiwan and Venezuela.