LONDON VAUXHALL DEALERS

21 June 2012 Last updated at 14:18 ET

Crowds have started to gather around the UK for the opening performances of the London 2012 Festival.

Actor Jude Law, pop star Pixie Lott and conductor Gustavo Dudamel will be part of the launch of the 12-week, nationwide festival of culture.

A 50ft replica of a ship, which has been built in Birmingham, will be unveiled as part of the festivities.

The headline events also include artist Jeremy Deller's inflatable Stonehenge, which comes to Carmarthen, Wales.

It will then travel around the UK for the rest of the festival.

Outdoor concerts in Derry, Windermere and Stirling are all being hampered by rain and wind, but audiences have begun to arrive, equipped with umbrellas and raincoats.

The rain faces competition from fire and pyrotechnics at Windermere later, as French street art company Les Commandos Percu light up the Cumbrian skies.

Their show, Lakes Alive: On the Night Shift, coincides with the arrival of the Olympic Torch Relay.

"Historically, the Olympics was as much about the arts and poetry as it was about sport, so this is about bringing a flavour of that back," Jan Shorrock from arts company Lakes Alive told the BBC.

She added that inclement conditions would not affect the entertainment.

"We are used to extreme weather. We have contingency plans in place to make small adaptations if we need to for safety reasons, but the show will go on."

In Northern Ireland, The Peace One Day Global Truce Countdown Concert takes place in Derry, where actor Jude Law will host performances from the likes of Pixie Lott, Imelda May and Newton Faulkner.

Speaking just before the concert got under way, Law said: "Any opportunity for people to get together and have fun is a good thing.

"If you go back to the origins of the Olympics, it was always about truce as well and that's why it seems so apt that Peace One Day, as an organisation, is working alongside the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

"For the two to combine, and for there to be a heart, and a good reason for people to celebrate is only a good thing. I'm all for that."

In Stirling, The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela will perform against the backdrop of Scotland's Stirling Castle.

The Big Concert will be led by conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who will be joined by 450 children from the estate of Raploch in Stirling, formerly one of the most deprived areas in the UK.

"This is beautiful," said Dudamel. "How music has changed this community, with the commitment of the children, the passion that they have, the discipline?

"We are so proud to be here, so happy and so honoured. It's really something big".

Meanwhile, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will perform the UK premiere of Jonathan Harvey's choral work Weltethos, which can be heard on BBC Radio 3.

More than 130 events take place in the festival's opening weekend alone, including the Radio 1 Hackney Weekend, headlined by Jay-Z and Rihanna.

Around 100,000 people are expected at the free London gig, which takes place over Saturday and Sunday.

'Value for money'

The London 2012 Festival will see more than 25,000 artists from all 204 Olympic nations take part in events across the UK.

But the current economic climate means the event's £55m price tag has attracted plenty of criticism. Festival director Ruth Mackenzie maintains it is "pretty good value for money", calling it "a once-in-a-lifetime event".

"I assure you, for a 12-week festival over the entire United Kingdom, compared to the budget for just three weeks in Edinburgh or the two weeks in Manchester, frankly it's a pretty small investment," she said.

Other highlights include comedian and musician Tim Minchin performing at The Eden Project in Cornwall and an exhibition of Olympic and Paralympic posters at London's Tate Britain in London.

Artist Martin Creed will mark the opening day of the Games on 27 July by asking people across the UK to ring a bell for three minutes from 08:12 am.

The "large-scale artwork" will be led by the Royal Navy and bellringers, but everyone will be encouraged to get involved with anything from doorbells to bicycle bells.

'Uniting the country'

Yorkshire poet Ian McMillan and composer Tim Sutton have written Cycle Song, a brand new opera celebrating Scunthorpe's rich cycling history.

Next month's show will feature a community cast of 1,700 performing alongside professional opera singers and aerial artists.

McMillan admits he is gripped by Olympic fever and even has tickets for the basketball and hockey, but he says it is hard for people around the UK not to write the event off as a "London thing".

"We know it is a London thing but I think the whole country's involved in the cultural bit of it and that should be the excitement," said McMillan.

"But isn't it a shame that they call it the London 2012 Festival?" he added.

"Surely it would be better to call it the 2012 Festival? We don't need the word London, we know where it is!"