The artistic director in charge of the 2012 Olympic Games' opening ceremony, Danny Boyle, has unveiled his plans for what the world can expect from the ceremony.

To reflect Britain's "green and pleasant land", Boyle says the three-hour event on July 27th will transform the Olympic Stadium into a typical English meadow, complete with grass, cows, sheep, chickens, even a cricket match. Spectators will fill a mosh pit, evoking Glaston-bury music festival and real clouds will produce real rain, in case the British weather fails to comply.

Some ten thousand volunteers have already begun rehearsing for the ceremony, which will also involve ten thousand athletes and sixty thousand spectators inside the stadium. Although Boyle is keeping most of the details of the opening ceremony secret, he has said that it will be titled "Isles of Wonder", inspired by William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".