Events that MLA West Midlands are running or that are happening in the West Midlands region.

WEST MIDLANDS CELEBRATES L2012 HANDOVER IN STYLE

People across the West Midlands will be part of a nationwide celebration this Bank Holiday – as the country marks the moment when the UK becomes the next official Olympic Games Host Country on Sunday 24 August.

At around 2.30pm on Sunday 24 August 2008, the Mayor of Beijing will hand the Olympic flag to the Mayor of London in an historic Handover ceremony that will be watched live by around 1.5 billion people worldwide. In London there will be a free concert for more than 40,000 people taking place on The Mall; and in the West Midlands every local authority has signed up to raise an official London 2012 flag and there will be live coverage from the BBC broadcast on to Giant Screens in Birmingham and Coventry City Centres. Elsewhere across the region, there will be special events taking place either dedicated to celebrating Handover or including a ‘Handover moment’ and every local authority in the West Midlands has signed up to raise an official London 2012 flag between 2 and 3pm during the afternoon.

Highlights in the West Midlands programme will include:

· Over 40 official 2012 flags will be raised across the region to mark the official Handover moment when London becomes the next host city for the Olympic Games. In addition, 20 events across the region have registered to be part of the Handover celebrations (see list below for breakdown of locations).

· Live screenings of handover moment and closing ceremony of the Beijing Games in Birmingham and Coventry city centres.

· Chinese dragon procession and afternoon of celebrations in Victoria Square in Birmingham City Centre.

· ‘Sing the Nation’ events taking place in Birmingham, Telford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Coventry and Upton-upon-Severn – part of a national series of free singing events open to all to celebrate Handover.

· Olympians of past and present; try an Olympic sport; and carnival procession in Coventry city centre.

· International Festival of Glass at Stourbridge College including a ‘Handover moment’.

· Celebration of sport at a Sports Festival as part of the Sandwell Valley Local Show at Sandwell Valley, West Bromwich.

· Olympic Fun Day for all the family including a Chinese Lion and Dragon Dance, Music, Chinese arts and crafts, as well as opportunity to ‘try a new sport’ at Abbey Stadium, Redditch.

· Celebration of the life of Dr William Penny Brookes – the Founder of the annual Wenlock Olympian Games in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, which inspired the creation of the modern Olympic Games.

· Shrewsbury Folk Festival – an annual national festival that this year will include a Handover moment.

· StreetGames in Stoke on Trent – a series of community games activities taking place across the city.

· Upton-upon-Severn Water Festival in Worcestershire – annual water festival in Worcestershire that this year will include a Handover moment.

· Regatta and party in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, that will include a special Handover moment.

· Community and family day of events based around an Olympic and Chinese theme in Telford Town Park.

· Traditional Tamworth Summer Show with a number of family events which will adopt a sporting, community and arts theme.

For further information about plans for Handover visit: www.london2012.com