London: Around 40,000 people including record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps will gather in London on Sunday to celebrate the Olympic mantle being handed over from Beijing ahead of the 2012 Games.
The free party will take place on the doorstep of Buckingham Palace, while thousands of people around the country will watch the handover in China live on big screens.
Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, predicted an "electric" atmosphere as crowds see London Mayor Boris Johnson receive the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony in Beijing.
The screens in Britain will also show the eight-minute slot -- featuring football star David Beckham kicking footballs from the top of a red London double-decker bus -- showcasing the 2012 games at the closing ceremony.
Phelps, the 23-year-old from the United States, who won eight gold medals in the pool, will be the star attraction at the event in London, which also features a flypast by the Red Arrows, the British Royal Air Force's aerobatics team.
Their distinctive red jets trailed red, white and blue smoke over London on the day the city was awarded the 2012 games in 2005 in Singapore.
The party will also feature singers including Will Young and Heather Small.
Coe said it was "about marking a moment in time, a moment when the eyes of the world will turn towards London when the Beijing Olympic games close and the focus turns to the next Olympic games summer host city".
Britain's success at the Beijing Olympics, where it has won 19 gold medals and lies fourth in the overall table, has taken many here by surprise and some commentators say it could help dissipate some of the cynicism about how much the games will cost.
The original budget for the London games was 3.4 billion pounds but has now lept to to 9.3 billion pounds (11.7 billion euros, $17.2 billion).
Even Queen Elizabeth II has been caught up by Olympic fever -- she said she had been following Team GB's successes "with great interest and admiration".
"As a nation, we now look forward to holding the Olympic games in London in 2012," she said in a statement released on Sunday.
"The golden triumphs of the present British team can only serve as further inspiration to those who will be working hard over the next four years to make the London games a shining example of Olympic success."
Organisers say the London games will not try and emulate the scale of the Beijing extravaganza but aim to be a "sustainable" Olympics which leaves a lasting legacy for the deprived area of east London where they will be based.
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