Entertainment extravaganza
London plans to entertain visitors with much more than sporting events
Alongside the sporting contests in London this summer is an entertainment extravaganza that will bring stars and celebrities from Paul McCartney to "Brangelina" to the city during the Olympic Games. Britain is organizing events designed to demonstrate — as the nation's Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt put it — that "culture is to Britain what the sun is to Spain."
Culture is a US$177-billion-a-year (NT$5.3-trillion-a-year) business in Britain, and music is one of the country's biggest exports, so it's no surprise that the games will be accompanied by a large number of summer concerts.
On July 21-22, the "River of Music" featured six stages along the Thames River — each named for a different continent. The arrival of the Olympic Torch to London on July 26 will be celebrated with a concert in Hyde Park. Snow Patrol, the Stereophonics, and 1980s heartthrobs Duran Duran are headlining a celebratory July 27 concert.
George Michael, Take That, and The Who are rumored to be playing at the closing ceremony and Coldplay is scheduled for the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
Beyond the Olympic Park, London is putting on its best public face for visitors, with outdoor performances, free film screenings and museum exhibitions. Giant screens dotted around London will show the sporting action to an estimated 3 million people.
A cornucopia of arts events is also taking place as part of the London 2012 Festival, involving some 12,000 events featuring 25,000 artists from around the world. Offerings include the World Shakespeare Festival, which features theater troupes from around the world performing Shakespeare's works.
Artist Jeremy Deller's life-size inflatable replica of Stonehenge will be lit up with flames at the National Botanical Gardens in Carmarthen. There will also be outdoor screens to watch the unveiling of Yoko Ono's IMAGINE PEACE art installation.
London 2012 Festival director Ruth Mackenzie said London won the games by promising to live up to modern Olympic movement founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin's ideals of "an Olympic Games based on the three pillars of sport, art and education." In the 21st century we might add a fourth pillar: celebrity.
Celebrity-studded parties and benefits are clustered around the games, kicked off yesterday by a bash for the Sports for Peace charity hosted by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Muhammed Ali was among the A-listers who were invited to the event.
Russia is setting up a 100,000-sq.-foot (9290-sq.-meter) Russia Park near Kensington Palace that will have sports fields, food and entertainment. It's billed as "an opportunity to find out what it means to party Russian style." Beside the Olympic Park in East London, one formerly grimy corner of the city is being turned into a slice of the Cote d'Azur for the duration of the event. It seems that the London Olympics will offer visitors the chance to experience many global cultures in a truly global city.
娛樂嘉年華
倫敦迎接遊客的並不只有運動賽事
今年暑假，倫敦除了舉辦體育競賽以外，保羅麥卡尼以及「布裘」等巨星和名流也將參與奧運期間舉行的娛樂盛會。如同英國文化局長傑若米杭特所說，大不列顛籌辦的活動是為了證明「文化之於英國，如同太陽之於西班牙。」
文化產業在英國是一項年產值高達一千七百七十億美元（約新台幣五兆三千億元）的生意，而音樂是該國最主要的出口產品之一；因此，奧運期間同時舉辦多場暑期演唱會並不令人意外。
在七月廿一日及廿二日，「音樂之河」演唱會在泰晤士河沿岸六個分別以各大洲命名的舞台上開唱。奧運聖火在七月廿六日抵達倫敦當天，也將在海德公園舉行慶祝演唱會。廿七日舉行的慶祝演唱會則以雪警樂團、立體音響樂團以及一九八○年代的帥哥演唱團體杜蘭杜蘭為主角。
喬治邁可、接招合唱團以及誰合唱團據傳將在閉幕典禮中獻唱，而酷玩樂團預計將在殘障奧運的閉幕典禮中開唱。
除了奧運公園之外，倫敦也以戶外表演、免費電影以及博物館展覽向遊客展現自己最佳的公眾風貌。倫敦各地也將設置大螢幕，為大約三百萬人轉播體育賽事。
各式各樣的藝文活動也都是二○一二年倫敦奧運嘉年華會的一環，其中包含來自全球兩萬五千位藝術家參與，共約一萬兩千項的活動。這些藝文表演中還有全球莎士比亞節，由世界各地的劇場演員演出莎士比亞的作品。
藝術家傑若米德勒的實體大小巨石陣充氣複製品，將在卡馬森的國家植物園內以火炬照亮。另外，戶外大螢幕也將轉播小野洋子的裝置藝術品「想像和平」從形塑到完工展出的過程。
二○一二年倫敦嘉年華會主辦人露絲麥肯錫表示，倫敦是因為實現了現代奧運運動發起人皮耶古伯丁男爵的理想「奧運包括運動、藝術與教育這三大支柱」，才順利取得奧運主辦權。在廿一世紀，我們或許應該加上第四根支柱：名人。
多項星光熠熠的派對與慈善活動也將在奧運前後舉行，其中率先登場的是昨日在維多利亞與亞伯特博物館進行、由布萊德彼特與安潔莉娜裘莉主持的「促進和平與發展體育運動」慈善派對。拳王阿里是獲邀參加這項派對的重量級名人之一。
俄羅斯將在肯辛頓宮附近設置了佔地十萬平方呎（九千兩百九十平方公尺）的俄羅斯公園，提供運動場地、美食以及娛樂，並被譽為「一探俄國式狂歡派對的契機」。在倫敦東區的奧運公園一側，該市一處原先相當骯髒的轉角，在奧運期間將轉型成能讓人一窺法國蔚藍海岸景致的地區。倫敦奧運似乎將提供遊客在這座真正全球化的城市中體驗多國文化的機會呢。
全通翻譯引用 http://chinapost.com.tw/guidepost/topics/default.asp?id=2697&next=1&sub=7
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