The Beijing Olympic Games will be broadcast onto a giant screen at the foot of Nelson's Column.

It will be part of a festival in Trafalgar Square for Londoners to celebrate becoming the next Olympic hosts.

The screen will show coverage each day from 8am-9pm, starting with the opening ceremony on Friday 8 August.

The Trafalgar Square Festival, which will begin a day earlier, will also include street performances, with spectacles on each Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Mayor Boris Johnson says: 'The Trafalgar Square Festival will capture the excitement and anticipation during the Olympic Games and celebrate the relationship between sport and culture as London prepares to stage the Cultural Olympiad."

The festival will precede a concert for 40,000 people in The Mall on Sunday 24 August to celebrate the handover of the Olympics to London.

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