The event, more than double the capacity of previous Big Weekends, will feature six stages of music. The majority of the tickets for BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend 2012 are being allocated to people living in Hackney and the surrounding boroughs. The announcement was made during a special simulcast broadcast by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra from the Olympic Park.
Radio 1 and 1Xtra's controller Andy Parfitt said: "This is the most ambitious event in the station's 44-year history. We aim to enhance the overall London 2012 summer with a celebratory event aimed specifically at the thousands of young people who live in the boroughs directly surrounding the Olympic Park." This year's Radio 1 Big Weekend was held in Carlisle and featured performances from Lady Gaga and Foo Fighters.
Festival Finances - Edinburgh's 12 major festivals provided a financial benefit to the city of £245 million in 2010, up £75 million from a similar study in 2004, according to an impact study commissioned by umbrella body Festivals Edinburgh. The 2010 study, by economic and social impact researchers BOP Consulting, used 15,000 survey responses taken over a 12-month period to describe and quantify the effect of the festivals on locals, visitors, young people, artists, the economy and the environment.
Kath Mainland, chair of Festivals Edinburgh, told The Stage: "The results are actually some magnitudes in excess of what we might have hoped. What the report provides is a complete justification of the investment that public bodies have made in the festivals to date. It quite clearly shows the benefit and the impact of that investment.
"The report will help us to continue to argue that investment in festivals is important because of all the returns you get back. Not just the economic impact, but also the social and cultural impact. For councillors in local government and ministers in national government, it helps them make those arguments too - it is much easier to make an argument to somebody if you have a very tangible piece of evidence in your hand, which I think this report is."
Arts Support - Andrew Lloyd Webber's charitable foundation is to embark on a £32m grant-giving programme targeted at supporting the arts. The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation has announced that it will use the money generated from last year's sale of the composer's Picasso portrait - Angel Fernandez de Soto - to help fund culture, heritage and the arts.
The foundation this week announced a £250,000 donation to UK charity Nordoff Robbins, which specialises in providing music therapy sessions to people suffering from autism, dementia, depression, stroke or terminal illness. It will use the money to help maintain its music therapy unit at the BRIT school in Croydon and to fund their work at the unit.
Mark Wordsworth, chairman of the trustees of The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, said: "Previously we have concentrated on fine art and arts education, but we have decided to help a broader scope of people and projects directly with the funds invested from the Picasso sale. Andrew Lloyd Webber is delighted that the money he gifted to the foundation is now being used to contribute to a wide range of projects and is making a significant difference to many people's lives."
Other beneficiaries of the Foundation's support announced include Chickenshed, All Saints Church, Margaret St, London, Burghclere Primary School Band, Time Spanners, the Monega Association, Haringey Shed and The Orpheus Centre.
(Jim Evans)
