The concert will take place in The Mall and will be free to the public - over 70,000 tickets will be allocated by ballot. The public can apply for tickets by telephone and also online.
The ticket telephone hotline – 090 11 12 13 14 - opened, Wednesday 2nd June from 9am, until noon Wednesday 9th June (inclusive). All calls are charged at local rate within the UK and will cost a maximum of 25p. Charges may differ for mobile phones.
From noon on Friday 4th June ticket applications can also be made online at
www.visitlondon.com until noon on Wednesday 9th June.
Successful ticket applicants will be decided by ballot and mailed tickets at the latest by 21st June.
The Olympic Torch Concert will be a landmark event for London and the UK, on what promises to be a day of excitement and historic significance. The Mall, for the first time ever, will become a gigantic open-air venue, linking sport and music, with access restricted to the ticket holders. Rock legend Rod Stewart will headline and will be performing classic hits including tracks with the cast of his hit West End musical ‘Tonight’s The Night’.
The concert will also feature James Brown, Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne, Jamelia, McFly, Will Young and Emma Bunton are performing in celebration of the Olympic flame coming to London, with more artists still to be announced.
The entertainment for ticket holders runs from 2pm until 8pm with the concert broadcast live on BBC1 from 6pm until 7.30pm, hosted by Jamie Theakston. The Mall, the site of so much pageant and history, will become the stage, with the audience on either side. Giant screens will show the progress of The ATHENS 2004 Olympic Torch Relay presented by Coca Cola and Samsung, as well as the day’s entertainment and concert.
The Olympic Torch Concert will provide a historic grand finale to the Olympic Torch Relay through London – the first time the Olympic flame has visited the UK since 1948. Throughout the day the Olympic flame will be carried through 11 London Boroughs by 140 torchbearers formed from a mix of ‘extraordinary ordinary’ people of all ages from Nadia Abdulla, age 14, from Morden, Surrey through to James Bryce, age 72, from Fife, Scotland plus stars such as Tim Henman, Jonathan Edwards, Colin Jackson and Heather Mills McCartney. Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to break the four minute mile in 1954, will start the relay from Wimbledon and Sir Steve Redgrave, five times Olympic
Gold medallist, will run the final leg of the relay into The Mall.
The Olympic Torch Relay and Concert are being organised by the Greater London Authority, British Olympic Association, and Visit London with the support of the London Development Agency and presenting partners, Coca-Cola and Samsung.
David Campbell, Chief Executive of Visit London, said:
“We are enormously proud to be associated with the Olympic flame’s visit to London and are delighted at the support we have been given by all the artists for what will be a spectacular concert and day of entertainment. Visit London wanted to stage an event that encompassed the ethos of the Olympic ideal, bringing it to the people in one of the world’s most famous capital cities : we are confident that the Olympic Torch Concert and all the events on 26th June will do just that.”
