Olympic Stadium Set For New Year Fireworks

A spectacular free fireworks display for 80,000 spectators is planned at the Olympic Stadium on New Year's Eve to welcome in 2012 by the London Mayor Boris Johnson it was reported today.

The Evening Standard said that a giant fireworks display will light up the East End and top music acts will play in the arena on December 31, 2011, to herald the beginning of the Olympic year.

Dan Ritterband, the London City Hall director of marketing, said: “We've been looking at other host cities and their Olympic Parks tend to turn into ghost towns afterward because the first time they open to the public is just before the Games.

"We want to sell the Park to Londoners."

Acts taking to the stage in the 80,000-capacity stadium may include Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and Hackney-born Leona Lewis, in a reunion for the song Whole Lotta Love, the Evening Standard said.

They performed it at Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium last summer.

Pyrotechnics are likely to be supplied by Chinese firm Panda Fireworks, the company which was hired for the Beijing opening ceremony and has been pitching for work in London.

The party would also allow officials to test facilities before the Games, which will attract about 500,000 spectators a day during the Olympics.