Celebrate the Olympic Handover

The countdown to 2012 has begun, and thousands of people across South East England will celebrate the Olympic handover day on 24 August 2008 with special community events and flag raising ceremonies.

Across South East England there will be free swimming, fun runs, community singing, ceremonial relays, picnics and performances. Included amongst the events is a yacht crewed by teenagers circumnavigate the Isle of Wight with their handover flag. Elsewhere Southampton will feature a relay combining a range of forms of transport. West Sussex will have a mass of picnics linked with ceremonial baguettes and outdoor performances. Chinese dragons will also handover flags in a variety of locations as well as a wide range of community festivals featuring special flag-raising events. Portsmouth and Herne Bay will also be beaming live pictures from Beijing and The Mall onto London 2012 Live Sites - special big screens.

There are more than 90 handover events planned for the South East region to celebrate the Olympic values of friendship, respect and endeavour, and to launch the build up to London 2012.

Find out here which of the 90 handover events are going on close to you