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31 Oct 2012

London 2012 Festival attracts 19.8m visits

The London 2012 Festival attracted more than 19.8m visits during its run from 21 June - 9 September.

Official figures show that the £63m event - the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad - included 621 productions and projects in resulting in 13,006 performances and events at 1,270 venues across the UK.

More than 200 works were commissioned for the festival, which also included 160 world and UK premieres and left a legacy of 176 permanent artworks.

Around 80 per cent of the 19.8m visits were for free events and a poll taken during the festival showed that 85 per cent of attendees say the event was a positive addition to the Games.

It's estimated that up to 500,000 people signed up to London 2012 to receive information on cultural events linked to the Games, with the strongest interest coming from young audiences, women and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people.

The results will be welcomed by the festival organisers, whose key aim of the London 2012 Festival was to use the power of the Games to engage new audiences with the arts.

Ruth Mackenzie, director of London 2012 Festival and Cultural Olympiad, said: "We asked partners and artists from around the world a to create 'Once in a Lifetime' new work to match up to the ambition and scale of the London 2012 Games.

"They rose magnificently to the challenge - they showed that the UK creative and cultural sectors are world leaders, and world-class artists amazed us with the risks they took and the quality of the work they created."