Oxford 2012 Festival

Leading Artists from around the World head line-up of first commissions announced for the London 2012 Festival

Oxfordshire will host events from dance to live music

The Big Dance and a spectacular free outdoor concert for an audience of over 50,000 are among the events that will take place in the lead up to the finale of the Cultural Olympiad - the London 2012 Festival - in 2012.

The finale of the Cultural Olympiad, the London 2012 Festival will be a 12-week UK-wide cultural celebration. Opening on midsummer's day 21 June 2012 and running until the last day of the London 2012 Paralympic Games on 9 September 2012, the Festival will define an outstanding summer of arts and culture in the UK.

Leading artists from all over the world will come together for what will be the UK's biggest ever arts festival - a chance for everyone to celebrate London 2012 through dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, film and digital innovation and leave a lasting legacy for the arts in this country.

Cate Blanchett, Toni Morrison, Olafur Eliasson, Lucian Freud, Mike Leigh, Jude Law and Tilda Swinton head the line-up of artists who are featured in the first group of commissions and special projects for the London 2012 Festival announced today.

There will be over 1,000 events that will be featured on a special website which will go live in Summer 2011. The aim is for over three million people to attend and be part of London 2012 Festival. Some of the events will be ticketed, some will be free to attend, and further information on ticketing, pricing and promotional plans will be provided next year in the build up to the first tickets going on sale in October 2011. Further programme announcements will be made next year about events relating to other art forms including comedy, fashion, food and digital innovation.

Sally Abbott, Regional Director, South East, Arts Council England said: "This is a truly inspiring programme that will show some of the most innovative and entertaining work being created in the UK and around the world.  2012 will be a very special moment for the arts across the world, and this programme offers an artistic experience for absolutely everybody.  It will be a fantastic finale to a range of wonderful work already taking place across the South East".

The London 2012 Festival is the finale of the Cultural Olympiad where in the South East, there have already been 52 cultural projects and programmes. Projects in Oxfordshire include the regional Creative Campus Initiative, which is featured in a national Cultural Olympiad book, released today. In addition, Oxfordshire has seen an innovative and ambitious project called Ark, that brought together scientists, artists and schools to 'imagine' a low carbon future and its potential benefits to the environment and society, and a national programme coming out of Henley's River and Rowing Museum, called Our Sporting Life, which brings together sport and culture in a unique celebration of Britain's sporting heritage.

Caterina Loriggio, Creative Programmer for London 2012 in the South East said: "In the South East we have focussed our Cultural Olympiad work on four priority areas; working with Deaf and disabled people, outdoor arts, universities and sports heritage. The River and Rowing Museum is leading the whole UK with their inspired Our Sporting Life project.  We are so lucky to have such an excellent and once in a lifetime event coming from the region.

"Our work with Deaf and disabled people is inspired by the Paralympic legacy of the region. We work closely with Stoke Mandeville, Birthplace of the Paralympic Movement and their collections to inspire young people across the region and are currently developing the first ever Paralympic digital archive in The Guttmann Legacy."

Ruth Mackenzie, Director of the Cultural Olympiad, LOCOG said: "From June 21st to September 9th 2012, across the whole of the UK, new work from the best artists, musicians, writers, comedians, film makers and other creative talent will be presented in the largest festival in the country. From food to fashion, street dance to digital, from pop to opera, the festival will offer once in a lifetime chance to be inspired by the best in the world."

Since the Cultural Olympiad started in 2008 11.2million people from the UK have participated in or attended over 5,400 public performances as part of Cultural Olympiad programmes inspired by 2012 and funded by our principal funders and sponsors. Over 67,000 people have attended 6,800 workshops as part of the Cultural Olympiad programmes.

Over 250 of The Tate Movie Project workshops have been attended by more than 1,100 14-25 year olds whist the Tate Movie Project website has seen more than 96,000 submissions to the film from young people following more than 270,000 visits to the site with over 15,300 unique users regularly contributing to the project. More than 1,100 14-25 year olds have attended Film Nation:Shorts workshops and there are now 1000 young curators working in museums across the UK as part of the Stories of the World project.