As Londoners prepare to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London Legacy Development Corporation is building a programme of community events in the spirit of the royal occasion.

This part of east London is celebrating the occasion like no other. In recognition of the Queen’s Jubilee year, the Olympic Park will be known as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after the Games, while more than 400 street parties, community events and pop up festivals are planned across the boroughs that make-up the Park – Newham, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

The Legacy Corporation is already putting together a rich programme of events including concerts, exhibitions and festivals to be held in and around the Park after it begins to reopen from 27 July, 2013.

They will kick off in the North Park with a welcoming event for residents and visitors, as well as a weekend-long cycling festival for London in August which could attract thousands of visitors and generate millions of pounds in economic benefit. The Park’s South Plaza will then open in Easter 2014 with London’s newest public space hosting events and an array of exciting attractions like food and music festivals, concerts, cultural programmes and community events. In the meantime, the Legacy Corporation is creating new community areas around the Park by bringing derelict buildings back into use which can be used while the Park closes in order for it to be transformed from an Olympic site into a brand new piece of the city. They include the White Building, a new cultural centre which will open next month in a former print works in Hackney Wick with studio space for artists, a café with canal side seating and a community and event area. It follows last month’s opening of an independent cinema in Sugar House Studios, Stratford, which has been set up in an abandoned former sign writer’s workshop.

Andrew Altman, Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation said:

“The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is bringing people all over London together. There is a real buzz of community spirit in the East End with hundreds of street parties and local events.

“We want to bring that excitement onto the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park when it opens in July 2013. There will be a mix of different attractions so visitors have new experience every time they visit.”

Legacy plans for the Park are further ahead than any previous host Olympic city. The Legacy Corporation has designed a number of sites across the Park which can be used for community events including an ecology themed community hub building and lawn in the North Park to open in 2013. In addition to being a Royal namesake the Park is also home to a 19-year-old English white willow planted by the Queen close to the Olympic Stadium when she came to view progress on the Olympic site in November 2009. It was the first of 4,000 trees to be planted on the Park. Earlier this year the Duke of Gloucester unveiled 60 glass pavement markers which form the E II R Insignia on the Greenway, which lies within the Park boundary. The glass markers form part of a 60km cycle and walkway created by the Jubilee Walkway Trust to celebrate the 60 year reign of Queen Elizabeth II.