The London 2012 Summer Olympic Games will be opened by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, said a Buckingham Palace spokesman Wednesday.
The royal couple will open the Olympic Games at the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium on July 27, to be viewed by more than a billion people around the world. They will also open the Paralympic Games at the same venue on August 29.
The Opening Ceremony’s artistic director Danny Boyle said last month, “we would be very honoured if we are compared very favourably to Sydney (site of the 2000 Games) and this was another people’s Games”.
The proceedings will begin with the sound of an “enormous” bell, the biggest ringing bell in Europe, that was commissioned from a foundry in Whitechapel, east London.
On Tuesday Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sport and the Olympics said, “with 150 days to go to the Games, we remain on time and within budget with more than 500 million pounds of uncommitted contingency remaining. This puts us in a strong position and gives me increasing confidence that we can deliver the Games under budget”.
