Planning for the 2012 Olympics: The details

06-Jul-2011 - Last updated on 26-Apr-2021 at 18:53 GMT

Plan your involvement in London 2012 by finding out what's happening near you and when

The London 2012 Olympics are just over a year away with almost a million* people expected to be attending them and their related events both in the capital and across selected areas of the country.

Businesses, particularly those in the hospitality industry are being told to plan now to take advantage of the extra custom that could come their way, but if you don’t know where and when the events are happening then how can you plan what to do?

In the first part of our feature series, we aim to give you the key dates, locations and information about what’s happening and when so you can begin to plan your involvement.

Don’t forget to check back next week for our next instalment when we’ll be looking at the best way of marketing your restaurant, hotel or pub before, during and after the 2012 Olympics.

Olympics & Paralympics dates:

The official Olympics Opening Ceremony is on 27 July at the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, but there are preliminary football matches at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, the City of Coventry Stadium and Hampden Park in Glasgow on 25 July and at all Olympic football venues (see below for list) on 26 July. The Olympics finish on 12 August.

The Paralympics then start on 29 August and run until 9 September.

See the full Olympic sport competition schedule here

Official Olympics venues:

There are 34 official Olympic venues around the UK. This number includes nine venues within the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London and the Athletes’ Village and the Main Press Centre, also in Stratford, another 13 in London and 10 outside.

As you can see from our map, official Olympic venues are located in all four corners of the UK, from Weymouth and Portland in the South to Newcastle in the North and Glasgow in Scotland.

See the full list of venues here

Olympic Torch Relay

The Olympic Flame will arrive in the UK on 18 May from Greece. Details of where it will arrive are not yet known, but it will be in Plymouth on 19 May and then circulate around the UK for the 70-day Olympic Torch Relay.

Organisers aim for the flame to be within an hour’s reach of 95 per cent of people in the UK, Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey during the tour, so even if there isn’t an Olympics venue near your area, you may still be able to feel the effects of Olympic fever.

See the torch locations by region and date here

Live sites

Live Sites are big screens and event spaces offering live information, video, news and community events throughout the course of the Olympics. There are 20 of them around the country and each one is programmed to feature a broad range of UK-wide and local content, events and partnerships with community, arts and media organisations.

See the locations of the live sites here

*Based on figures compiled by VisitBritain and Oxford Economics in 2005