Olympics Take Over Exchange Square

VISITORS to Manchester city centre will be able to watch Olympic sporting events – and Jubilee celebrations – from an urban garden.

The City Council have announced that the London 2012 Olympics will be marked in Manchester with a Live Site in Exchange Square.

This will open on Friday June 1, transforming the area in time for the Queen’s Jubilee.

There'll also be a bar, called the Summer House, with picnic tables, trees and flowers in a clear roofed pavilion surrounded by white picket fencing.
The bar has been created by Heart Soul Rock And Roll, who are also behind the Yatch Club in Spinningfields.

Visitors will be able to watch sporting and cultural events on the Exchange Square big screen, including this weekend’s Jubilee celebrations, Olympic Games events – including Team GB’s opening football match against Senegal at Old Trafford, the 100m final and the opening and closing ceremonies – and the Paralympic Games.

How interesting that Team GB games are being screened yet the matches featuring England in the European Championships next month won't be. 

A range of Shakespearean films will also be screened, as well as Royal Opera House productions and Last Night of the Proms.

The Wimbledon Tennis Championships and non-England Euro 2012 matches will also be shown on the big screen throughout the summer.

Musicians and DJs will perform in the Summer House, while a programme of activities has also been planned in and around the live site scheduled to tie in with Olympic Games activities. More details of these activities will be announced here.

People in the square will also be able to try a range of Olympic sports for themselves, with special ‘have a go’ interactive sites set up on Exchange Square and Corporation Street, while the Torch Relay will go past the live site on its way to a special evening celebration on Albert Square on Saturday June 23.

Confidential hopes the mad giant gnomes don't attack it.