The London 2012 Festival, a 12-week arts marathon running from June 21, 2012 to the last day of the London 2012 Paralympics on September 9, 2012, will feature more than 1,000 nationwide events.

They range from dance, music, theatre, visual arts, film and digital work, and hope to attract more than three million people.

Announcing the names of the first commissions today, Cultural Olympiad Board chair Tony Hall said he hoped the festival would be a "wonderful finale" to the run-up to London 2012.

He predicted: "It is going to be a stupendous summer of sports and arts - the whole of the UK in celebration."

Actor Jude Law has a hand in the opening event as one of the producers of a Peace One Day production in Londonderry, which argues for an international day of ceasefire and non-violence.

Major exhibitions of work by Hockney and realist painter Lucian Freud will be staged and contemporary artists Rachel Whiteread and Olafur Eliasson are working on special commissions.

There will also be a new sound project by Martin Creed.

Damon Albarn, who co-founded the world-conquering "virtual" group Gorillaz, is working with Rufus Norris and Jamie Hewlett on a new musical number for the Manchester International Festival.

Musicians from 205 countries will perform concerts at "landmark sites" along the River Thames to an audience of more than 500,000.

There will also be presentations from the Sage Gateshead and Celtic Connections in Glasgow.

A big outdoor music event is also being planned for east London.

Blanchett and the Sydney Theatre Company will be part of an Australian cast tackling a new adaptation of German playwright Botho Strauss' work Gross and Klein.

The World Shakespeare Festival, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, will seek to celebrate the playwright's work at venues including the Roundhouse, the Barbican and the National Theatre.

The National Theatre Wales, the Iraqi Theatre Company, based in Baghdad, and the Companhia Bufomecanica from Rio de Janeiro also have productions in the pipeline.

Freud gets his first major portrait exhibition, to be staged at National Portrait Gallery.

The festival is being funded by the Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK and the Olympic Lottery Distributor, while BP and BT are also backers.

The festival schedule will appear on a website due to go live in summer 2011.