What do Jay-Z, Rihanna, Lana Del Rey, David Guetta and Jack White have in common? They’ll all be converging on London this weekend for a massive free concert.
The A-listers will be joined by a slew of other artists including Flo Rida, Florence and the Machine and Jessie J at the upcoming BBC Radio 1 event, which is slated to take place on June 23 and 24 as part of the London Olympic Arts Festival, a country-wide cultural event that kicks off this Thursday and continues through September. The festival is tied, of course, to the 2012 Summer Olympics, which are being held in the U.K. capital beginning July 27 (the Paralympics kick off on August 29).
The star-studded concert (which is taking place in the Hackney Marshes area of East London) is only one of thousands of events taking place at the gigantic summer festival, with 10 million tickets to be made available to the general public for a host of free and paid activities representing the fields of film, music, art, fashion and more. The total budget for the fest has been pegged at U.S. $86 million.
In addition to the two-day BBC music event this weekend, Elton John is set to headline a concert at Wembley Arena on September 21 for the Peace One Day organization, which is calling for a worldwide ceasefire on the day of the show. Other acts are expected to be announced soon for the one-time event, which is taking place under the umbrella of the Olympic Arts fest.
You can check out a full listing of festival events over at the festival’s official website.
Any Brits reading who plan on attending the free concert this weekend? Sound off in the comments!