“I am delighted that Cambridge will host the olympic flame. The city’s rich history of sporting and cultural excellence makes it the perfect location for a memorable olympic celebration. Cambridge already offers a wonderful array of sporting and cultural activities.”

THE olympic flame is coming to Cambridge, organisers have announced today (Wednesday).

A special evening celebration event will be held in July 2012 as the city has been selected to be part of the national torch relay, which will see the flame visit towns and cities across the UK.

Cambridge will host the torch as part of the city council’s Big Weekend celebrations on Saturday, July 7 2012. The event, on Parker’s Piece, will showcase the city and the county’s unique olympic sporting and cultural heritage, with the olympic flame providing the focal point of the celebrations.

Cambridge is one of 66 evening celebration locations across the UK confirmed today by the London 2012 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

The evening events will offer thousands of people the opportunity to come together and get involved in celebrations and share in the olympic spirit.

As part of the events LOCOG and the presenting partners, Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung, will stage exciting entertainment shows where a cauldron will be lit from the olympic flame, marking the end of the day’s proceedings.

The olympic flame will arrive in the UK from Greece on Friday, May 18, 2012 and the 70-day torch relay will start at Land’s End, Cornwall on the morning of May 19. After leaving Land’s End, the olympic flame is expected to travel an estimated 8,000 miles across the UK. The flame will arrive at the Olympic Stadium on July 27 2012 for the lighting of the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony, signifying the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Cllr Martin Curtis, chairman of Cambridgeshire’s 2012 Olympics Member Panel, said: “The olympic flame coming to Cambridgeshire feels like a dream come true. As well as celebrating our unique sporting and cultural heritage through the 2012 games, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to inspire everyone in the county, young and old, to get involved in sport and the arts, volunteer, whatever it may be, through the magic of the games.”

Cllr Sian Reid, leader of Cambridge City Council, said: “I am delighted that Cambridge will host the olympic flame. The city’s rich history of sporting and cultural excellence makes it the perfect location for a memorable olympic celebration. Cambridge already offers a wonderful array of sporting and cultural activities. Now we have the chance to harness the spirit of the olympics to encourage even more people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities to get involved from across the region.”

The olympic flame will be carried across the UK by 8,000 inspirational torchbearers and once the detailed daily route is confirmed later this year, it is our aim that 95% population will be within a one hour journey time, of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.

In addition to the locations confirmed on the route today, many other cities, towns, villages and places of outstanding natural beauty, sports venues and community hubs will be announced in a second, more detailed route announcement later this year that will confirm the many other places the olympic flame will visit on each day of the relay.