This year's Olympic festivals kick off with Victoria Park's Paradise Gardens

THE East End s annual Paradise gardens festival will kick off a six-week cultural extravaganza inspired by the Olympic Games. Part of the Cultural Olympiad, Create10 will celebrate the homegrown artistic talent, cultural institutions and iconic arts venue

THE East End's annual Paradise gardens festival will kick off a six-week cultural extravaganza inspired by the Olympic Games.

Part of the Cultural Olympiad, Create10 will celebrate the homegrown artistic talent, cultural institutions and iconic arts venues in east London over a series of events running from June 19-August 1.

Nicknamed 'the festival of festivals', the series of events aim to showcase the UK's arts and culture to the world in the build up to the 2012 Games and beyond.

Events will be taking place in the five Olympic Host Boroughs of Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, with Paradise Gardens in Victoria Park kick starting the celebrations on 19 June.

Last year, Create09 was attended by more than 822,000 people and launched a series of cross-borough commissions that are now a key part of Create10.

They include the urban music festival Young London: Into Music, which celebrates the next generation of music talent from the five host boroughs, the Create Art Award, the largest participatory art award in the UK, and Future Histories, a series of discussions across art, politics and ideas, invention and industry and fashion design by influential artists, designers and creatives.

Venues and spaces for this year's festival include the Chisenhale Gallery, the O2, Shoreditch Park, Stratford Circus, Sutton House, the National Maritime Museum, Victoria Park, Whitechapel Gallery and Wiltons Music Hall.

Check www.createlondon.org for details and news.