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Saturday April 5 marks the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park's opening weekend. A new light-up fountain will be in full flow, welcoming visitors entering from the Stratford end of the park, and choirs, bands, poets, circus performers and storytellers will be on hand to provide entertainment. Acrobats from Aircraft Circus will perform at the ArcelorMittal Orbit, which is also opening to the public for the first time since the Olympics.
In addition to the Tumbling Bay playground in the north of the park, a new play area in the south will open, featuring a sandpit and a climbing wall. There will be taster sessions for a range of sports as well as fitness activities and dance workshops to get involved in. The East London Mobile Workshop (a roving arts and crafts bus) and The Floating Cinema will also set up in the park for the day and 250 local children will take part in a celebratory parade.
If you're planning to take a dip in the London Aquatics Centre or looking forward to a trip up The ArcelorMittal Orbit it might be worth booking in advance to avoid queues.
London's newest 24-hour outdoor space is the same size as Hyde Park and Kensington Park Gardens combined, so four trails have been designed to help visitors navigate the huge park. The free trail guides are themed, focusing on London 2012, biodiversity, kids' activities or art in the park. Look out for Keith Wilson's 'Steles', which look like giant wax crayons. These colourful posts jutting out of the Waterworks River can be used as mooring posts and are made from the same material as navigational water buoys. See if you can spot any of the 525 bird boxes and 150 bat boxes cleverly placed around the park. Or the plaques set into the park's benches bearing weird and wonderful facts contributed by local residents and famous people. Did you know hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards? Or that the average pencil can draw a straight line 56 kilometres long?