Rihanna to Join Jay-Z, Stephen Fry in Olympics Festival
Rihanna and Jay-Z will be the two headline acts in the popular music lineup for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The pair will star in the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012 (June 23-24) a month before the Games, said organizers of the Olympics cultural festival, releasing the program at a news conference today. Comedians Stephen Fry and Tim Minchin will be among other entertainers cropping up in venues across Britain.
“There will be absolutely something for everyone: from Beethoven to Jay-Z, from Shakespeare to Mike Leigh,” Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said at the news conference in the Tower of London. Leigh is a film director.
The festival organizers conveyed the size and scope of the event.
“The London 2012 Festival will be the biggest cultural celebration in our lifetime,” said Royal Opera House Chief Executive Tony Hall, who chairs the Cultural Olympiad board.
Hall said more than 18 million people had already taken part in 9,000 performances and almost as many workshops.
The U.K. is rolling out dozens of arts events around the Games, which run from July 27 to Aug. 12. Some have been long planned and some commissioned as part of a four-year, 97 million pound ($157 million) cultural program.
Other headliners of Hackney Weekend — set to draw an estimated 100,000 fans — are Florence + the Machine, Jack White, David Guetta and Tinie Tempah
So... is BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend supposed to be sponsored by the Olympics this year because I don't see the correlation? I'm confused with the association. This is a festival that happens every year that Rihanna and Jay just so happen to be headlining this year, a year in which the Olympics just so happen to be hosted in London.
