Tomorrow is the big day!

To welcome the day of the London 2012 Opening Ceremony, on the morning of Friday, July 27th, Big Ben and thousands of other bells across the United Kingdom will be ringing non-stop for three minutes. This is the performance entitled Work No. 1197, conceived by the Turner-prize winning artist and musician Martin Creed for the London 2012 Festival. The Big Ben will chime more than forty times between 8:12 am and 8:15 am. A historic event, as it is the first time that the strike of Big Ben has been rung outside its regular schedule since February 15, 1952 for the funeral of King George VI. Whoever is in Great Britain tomorrow will be able to participate in the event by ringing any kind of bell for three minutes. And those without a bell will be able to download from the web site www.allthebells.com an exclusive Martin Creed ringtone, Work No. 1372, capable of reproducing the sound of twenty-eight different bells. Ruth Mackenzie, Director of London 2012 Festival, said: “This initiative is London 2012 Festival’s biggest community project, and we are incredibly excited that the commission allows everyone in the UK the chance to be part of history in the making as we aim to set a world record for the largest number of bells to be rung simultaneously.”