Olympic arts festival to feature a winning line-up

The actress Cate Blanchett, musician Damon Albarn and pop artist David Hockney will have starring roles in the arts festival to mark the London 2012 Olympic Games.

They are part of a line-up that is commissioned for a 12-week arts marathon, running between 21 June 2012 and 9 September 2012. Over 1,000 nationwide events ranging from dance, music, theatre, visual arts, film and digital work are being planned in the hope of drawing over three million people.

Announcing the first festival commissions at the Royal Opera House in central London, Tony Hall, the Cultural Olympiad board chair, hoped it would be a "wonderful finale" to the four-year run-up to London 2012. Major exhibitions of work by Hockney and realist painter Lucian Freud are to be staged, while contemporary artists Rachel Whiteread and Olafur Eliasson are working on special commissions.

Albarn is working with Rufus Norris and Jamie Hewlett on a new musical production that will debut at the Manchester International Festival (MIF), a joint commission with the English National Opera for London 2012.

The Oscar-winning actress Blanchett will be part of an Australian cast tackling a new adaptation of German playwright Botho Strauss's work Gross und Klein.

The World Shakespeare Festival, by the Royal Shakespeare Company, will celebrate the playwright's work at venues across London.

The festival is being funded by the Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK and the Olympic Lottery Distributor. BP and BT are also backers.