Despite the combined ages of the old masters, easily running in the several hundred years, Ed Vaizey, the Conservative shadow arts minister, said the famous music acts should be included in the festivities of the Cultural Olympiad’s series of events for the 2012 Games, thus joining the new cultural guard.

Ed Vaizey added that a programme of free shows in Hyde Park, or Buckingham Palace is in the works. As a side note, the 2012 Olympic Games arrive just in time to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond jubilee, hence using Buckingham Palace for the occasion.

He added that Britons from all over could witness events featuring iconic artists as well as Britain’s exciting new musicians as they would perform up and down the country.

Mr Vaizey highlighted the importance of adding popular, well established and commercial performances to the cultural programme which would typically feature arts which are subsidized such as theatre and opera.

He added that, in order to present successful Cultural Olympiads which should gather as many souls as possible, organisers feel it is vital to include the participation of the popular and commercial sector of the creative scene.

Commenting on a future Conservative government’s arts policy, Mr Vaizey said that Britons should expect short-term pains while the new administration works to get the country’s finances back in order. He added that the front-line arts should be protected as much as possible, adding that he is pledging to keep the current policy at national museums and galleries, meaning free admission.

The 16 cities which are bidding for participation in the huge event have been disclosing their plans to ‘England 2018′ officials during the week and, along with Wembley, the Emirates and the new stadium in Tottenham, the London team believes the new Olympic stadium could boost the overall quality of the bid.

The Olympic Park located in Stratford is set to becoming the biggest urban park to have been built in Europe in 150 years and will offer a giant focal point for football fans to congregate and watch matches on huge television screens. .

The key question at this point appears to be the Olympic Stadium’s initial 80,000-seat capacity. Plans to have the capacity reduced immediately after the 2012 Olympics may have to be postponed until the World Cup in 2018.

Simon Greenberg, chairman of London United said:”The Olympic Stadium is being put forward as a potential match venue for 2018/2022″

He added that the Olympic Stadium and Olympic Park would clearly boost the bid in a whole variety of ways, such as the legacy aspect and also being one of the most modern stadiums on the planet.

Minister for the Olympics and London Tessa Jowell appeared concerned with the potential financial aspects, with the firstl estimates showing that it would cost more than £100 million to alternate from the legacy plan of simply reducing it to a 25,000-capacity athletics venue.

Managed by Lord Triesman, chairman of the Football Association, the England 2018 bid team is set to make a final decision on the preferred venues in December, following the last round of presentations from the competing cities. England 2018 will assemble between 12 and 18 match venues which will make up their final bid to Fifa, one year before the deciding vote.

IOC officials confirmed the line up of Olympic events for the 2012 Olympic Games at a Berlin meeting today.

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) was gunning for 11 sailing events, maintaining the Open Multihull event.

IOC’s Jacques Rogge wrote to ISAF: “Whilst the IOC Executive Board fully recognises the value that Sailing brings to the Olympic Games, it decided to maintain its decision of 2005 regarding the overall quota of sailors and medals. As a consequence, Tornado Multihull shall not be on the programme of the Games of the XXXth Olympiad in London.”

The sailing events to be shown at the 2012 Olympic will be these 10:

Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser
Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Men’s Two Person Dinghy High Performance – 49er
Men’s Windsurfer – RS:X
Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy – Finn
Men’s Keelboat – Star
Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Women’s Windsurfer – RS:X
Women’s Keelboat Match Racing – Elliott 6m

ISAF’s Jerome Pels said: “Of course we’re disappointed that our request to keep the 11th medal has not been accepted but we understand and respect the IOC’s decision. We’re sad to see the Multihull off the Olympic Programme for London 2012, but for 2016 Games there will be a new discussion on the events and equipment within ISAF with a possibility of a come back of the Multihull.

“We now look forward with great anticipation to the London 2012 Olympic Games. ISAF is working closely with the IOC and the London Organisers to ensure the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition builds on the successes achieved at Qingdao in 2008.”

At a later press conference, Rogge claimed not allowing additional sailing events was because the Games have reached a threshold, “Most of the applications have been politely declined because all of the applications combined resulted in a potential accumulation of 720 athletes to the already 10,500 of Games. So we kindly said to the Federations, sorry but we cannot accommodate your request.”

We would like to thank www.sailing.org for quotes used in this article.