Olympics to open in an English meadow

Work continues on the London 2012 Olympic Park to make it ready for the opening ceremony and the competing athletes in London. AP/Alastair Grant

LONDON — The 2012 London 0lympics will open in an English meadow, complete with cows and sheep, a cricket match — and a mosh pit.

Danny Boyle, artistic director of the games’ opening ceremony, unveiled Tuesday a model of the set, which transforms the Olympic Stadium into a rural idyll.

It comes complete with grass, livestock and a hill modeled on Glastonbury Tor in southwest England. Spectators will fill a mosh pit, evoking the raucous Glastonbury music festival.

There are even real clouds that Boyle says can produce real rain — in case the British weather fails to comply.

Boyle said the set evoked the “green and pleasant land” of William Blake’s poem “Jerusalem,” an emblem of Englishness.

Some 20,000 volunteers have begun rehearsing.

The games run July 27-Aug. 12.