It is billed as the start of the greatest show on earth - and you can watch it on big screens across Kent.

Open-air screenings of the Olympic Games opening ceremony are taking place at venues across the county tonight.

The show, which starts at 9pm, will be broadcast on huge screens in Dover, Gravesend and Rochester. A free community festival also takes place in Ashford.

Children from Kent schools will help form a guard of honour tonight for athletes ahead of the opening ceremony - waving flags from countries around the world.

A total of 2,000 youngsters will line the route as participants make their way from the Olympic village to the stadium before the athletes' parade.

The schools pupils from Kent attend and the countries they will represent are:

• Meopham School, Gravesham- Central African Republic
• Knockhall Community Primary, Dartford -North Korea
• Valence School, Sevenoaks - Haiti
• St John’s RC Comprehensive School, Gravesham - Hong Kong
• Hayesbrook School, Tonbridge and Malling - Mali
• Lenham Primary School, Maidstone -Slovenia
• Brompton Academy, Medway - Senegal
• Highworth Grammar School, Ashford - Sudan
• Bennett Memorial Diocesan School, Tunbridge Wells -Sweden
• Chaucer Technology School, Canterbury -US Virgin Islands

A silent disco - with up to 1,000 people expected to party in silence - will take place at a screening of the opening ceremony in Community Square, Gravesend.

It is one of nine nine official Olympics Community Live sites in Gravesham, where people will be able to watch Olympic events on the big screens.

A zumbathon will be held in Dover's Market Square from 7pm to get people in the party mood before the ceremony is broadcast on a big screen.

The Olympic opening ceremony will be shown on this big screen in Dover's Market Square - also used for last year's royal wedding.

A free community festival takes place in Ashford this afternoon. RELAY is being staged in Ashford’s North Park, alongside the Civic Centre, from 3.30-6.30pm - with activities including face painting, a bouncy castle, circus skills, music and sport.

And the Rochester Castle Gardens will broadcast the sporting spectacular after the Medway Mile.

Fireworks will mark the end of the annual fun run, which takes place at 7.30pm, with family entertainment and activities from 5pm. It comes after churches across Kent were set to join hundreds of others across the country in ringing their bells this morning to herald the arrival of the Games.

From 8.12am to 8.15am, they were celebrating the start of the tournament by rinding as quickly and loudly as possible.