Move over Brad and Jess - the Olympic stadium is ready to rock

 
p49 Singer Rihanna performs live on stage as part of her 777 tour at The Forum in London, England.
Getty
Matthew Beard3 January 2013

The Olympic stadium is set to reopen with a string of rock concerts, setting it on track to rival Wembley and the O2 arena.

Promoters, impressed by the live music at the Olympics and Paralympics closing ceremonies, are due to stage shows in July, marking the first anniversary of the Games. The line-up is set to be announced within weeks.

The plan is for some gigs to head east to Stratford from Hyde Park, where complaints about noise have almost doubled since 2008. Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Blur performed there last summer, and Bruce Springsteen and Sir Paul McCartney had their microphones cut off when a show overran.

Dennis Hone, chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, told BBC London: “We have the opportunity to put on some major events in the [Olympic] park — some music events and festivals and an anniversary weekend on 27 and 28 July.”

Meanwhile, more than 50,000 people have applied to participate in this summer’s inaugural 100-mile “cycle marathon” along the route of the Olympic road cycle race.

Starting in Stratford as part of the series of events in late summer to reopen the renamed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the RideLondon marathon will take place on August 3 and 4, and will be the park’s first mass sporting event since its transformation after last summer’s Games.

The area around the stadium in the south of the park with the aquatic centre and Orbit Tower will not be opened fully to the public until spring next year. However, the north of the park, with the handball arena, waterways and parklands, will be made available this summer.

Organisers said today that cycle fans have just 24 hours until the ballot shuts for the cycle marathon, which will involve 20,000 amateur, club and world-class riders. Registrations doubled in the past two months but thousands more are being encouraged last-minute. Those who are unsuccessful in the ballot can apply for 6,000 places to ride for 330 charities.

Mayor Boris Johnson said he believes the marathon will become “one of the world’s leading cycle events”. The RideLondon weekend will begin with a family fun ride of up to 50,000 participants aimed at amateurs who want to enjoy cycling in a traffic-free environment over eight miles of closed roads, taking in famous landmarks.

The next day, the RideLondon-Surrey 100 challenge will start from the park and cover a modified version of the 100-mile Olympic road race course through central London via Richmond Park and out to the Surrey Hills.

Hugh Brasher, from London and Surrey Cycling Partnership, said: “RideLondon-Surrey 100 is destined to do for cycling what the London Marathon did for running in the Eighties and take it to a new level. People have been inspired by the thought of riding the route made famous by the London 2012 Games.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in