World's biggest tent to house Libyan celebrations

London: They have been conceived on the scale of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

If anything, the superlatives will be even greater for the celebrations next week to mark the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to power in Libya.

Beijing 2008 did not boast the world's largest tent, 1,000 camels, Toureg nomads or 40 hot air balloons.

Performers being flown in from all over the planet include a brass band from Wales. The giant tent, and the stage within it - longer than a football pitch - are being built by Atlantic Enterprise, a British special events company.

The director is a Frenchman and the party is being put together by a public relations company run by Sir Martin Sorrell, once the British government's favourite public relation man.

Organisers are expecting 300,000 Libyans to see the show live. After congregating in Libya's capital Tripoli on Tuesday, hundreds of VIP guests will enjoy an evening buffet before watching the four-hour spectacular in a specially-built Bedouin tent.

The scale will be vast. The tent is 400 feet long, 135 feet wide and 80 feet high. Four hundred performers, helped by a crew of 1,100, will lay on a pageant of Libya's history as the centre of Phoenician trade, of Roman civilisation and Arab learning.

Shane McCarthy, Atlantic's managing director, said the firm was using 15 giant Antonov aircraft to fly in 8,000 tonnes of equipment. There would be 100 tonnes of equipment on the stage. Reference will be made to Libya's period as an Italian colony. The centrepiece of the event, the 40 years of Gaddafi's rule, will be portrayed remains a mystery.

One of the organisers said it would be a "surprise".

During those 40 years, Gaddafi established rule by personality cult and became known across the world as one of its most eccentric, then most ruthless, and finally most reviled rulers. But Philippe Skaff, a senior executive of Grey Worldwide, the public relations company behind the celebrations, said: "One has to realise that what seems bad to the western world might seem good for Libya."

In the past decade, Gaddafi has resumed ties with the West. He handed over for trial the alleged Lockerbie bombers, including Abdul Basset Ali Al Megrahi, gave up plans for nuclear weapons, and opened oil concessions to western companies.

The Libyans have invited world leaders but the reception given to the Lockerbie bomber on his return to Libya has clearly unsettled more than just the Americans and the British.

In addition to the confirmed withdrawal of the Duke of York, presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Dmitri Medvedev of Russia have said they will not attend.

Silvio Berlusconi of Italy will meet Gaddafi this weekend but will not go on to the festivities afterwards.

Al Megrahi, once said to be the intended guest of honour, is no longer on the guest list.