Greenwich + Docklands International Festival 2024 Reveals Full Programme

Greenwich+Docklands International Festival, London's award-winning annual outdoor festival of free theatre and performing arts taking place from 23 August to 8 September 2024, has revealed its full programme and an opening night event.

A total of 20 Premieres, including two World and one European premiere, UK and International Artists from Australia, South Africa, France, Spain, The Netherlands and Quebec are part of this year's 50+ events inspired by the festival theme of ALL CHANGE.

GDIF's programme is packed with surprising and unusual events often featuring innovative staging. Many events invite participation and five productions have been co-created with local people. All taking place in public spaces across the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Newham and the City of London.

The worlds of pyrotechnics and percussion collide on Friday 23 August in this year's opening night spectacle Silence! presented by world-renowned French street artists Les Commandos Perçu. Skies above Woolwich will be lit up for a jaw-dropping evening of live drumming and choreographed pyrotechnics, launching GDIF 2024 with an electrifying wave of energy against the backdrop of Woolwich's Royal Artillery Barracks. With echoes of Woolwich's industrial, military and manufacturing heritage, the production also looks to the future in its celebration of collective endeavour and creativity. 

Among today's newly announced unmissable theatre shows are two thrilling premieres: Award-winning site-specific theatre makers Dante or Die present A Ballad of Thamesmead; a heartfelt and immersive co-created portrait of South-East London's town of tomorrow', Thamesmead, fusing live contemporary folk music, sound design and spectacular lighting. Multi-award-winning theatre companies Good Chance and Gecko join forces to present From Here On, marking the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport to imagine a safer future for all children in the present. This extraordinary and groundbreaking physical theatre performance explores a child's right to safe passage and calls for empathy, hope and unity. These world premieres join the previously announced Actors Touring Company production Bodies of Water, directed by Olivier-winning director Matthew Xia, co-created with local sanctuary-seeking communities and experienced on the shore of the Thames in Greenwich. In Eltham, Award-winning theatre company Mechanimal's Crap at Animals will playfully explore extinct and endangered species through clowning and physical theatre.

Life Lines by world renowned climbing and acrobatics artists Lézards Bleus will take audiences on a spectacular and surprising journey through Greenwich Peninsula with a tour de force integration of parkour and contemporary architecture. Award-winning artist collective Variable Matter present the art and sound installation World Kiosk at Green Street in Newham, where a street kiosk appears for five magical days. Visitors are invited to escape the intensity of the City, sip a delicious cup of tea and listen in to entrancing soundscape of shared stories and reflections.

For the first time GDIF transforms Stratford Park in Newham into a theatrical playground for children and families in PARKWORKS, a new free two-day family-friendly programme with performances and games across the August Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday. Kicking off the festivities with a synchronized pram-party is the previously announced highlight Pram People by Polyglot in a moving celebration of community and parent-child connection. Families are also invited to experience an inclusive aerial performance with Ella Mesma's Rainbow Butterfly, South Asian dance and storytelling in Sonia Sabri's Moghul Miniatures and help to build Morphosis, an enormous bamboo play structure with French artists Moso.

Dancing City, GDIF's annual celebration of international and UK dance this year moves to Newham in public spaces across Stratford Cross, East Bank, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Stratford Town Centre on 7 September. The programme of 11 events announced today is presented in partnership with Sadler's Wells East for the first time and includes work by Mark Smith Productions, 100Hands, Afro Queens, Richard Chappell Dance, Stacked Wonky, Le Patin Libre, Chandenie Gobhardhan, Brandon Anderson and StopGAP Dance Company. They join the previously announced Patios choreographed by Jeanefer-Jean Charles MBE and the UK premiere of Touch by Yoann Bourgeois, (Harry Styles-as it was 2022, Missy Elliot Cool off 2020).

Bradley Hemmings MBE, GDIF's Artistic Director said: “This year GDIF has adopted the theme of ALL CHANGE. These are difficult times everywhere and the world of outdoor arts is no exception. However, by embracing change, welcoming new partners and reinventing the shape of this year's festival, I'm very proud that GDIF will continue to bring stunning free and inclusive outdoor arts experiences to audiences across 17 fantastic days.

“For 2024, we're foregrounding the great tradition of outdoor arts and activism with a series of commissions and events that invite us to reflect on making positive change, whilst disrupting the everyday rhythm of life and creating moments of joy and togetherness.”

Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Mayor of Newham said: “I'm thrilled to be welcoming the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival to Newham once again with four stand-out art experiences this summer for people to be wowed by and enjoy.  Our collaboration with GDIF is all part of our ‘Building Newham's Creative Future' plans where everyone has access to the transformative power of culture and the arts. From aerial performances on a 2.5 tonne block of ice, gravity- defying dance and a theatrical playground full of prams in Stratford Park, it's all change in our collaboration with GDIF as we show how Newham is a beating heart of London's culture. That's why I can't wait to attend all the thought-provoking outdoor art productions GDIF is bringing to our borough this year. I'd urge everyone to hurry and sign up for the free activities when they are announced in June, because in Newham we want art accessible to everyone!”

A spokesperson for the Royal Borough of Greenwich said: "We're proud to be supporting another brilliant year of Greenwich + Docklands International Festival as part of Royal Greenwich Festivals 2024, bringing our communities together to enjoy free, exciting and accessible events across our borough. We are all living in challenging times, across the arts and culture sector and beyond. This year's ground-breaking programme explores the festival's theme of 'All Change', and the effects these transitional periods have on us all.

"With an opening spectacle in Woolwich, and performances and events in Abbey Wood and Eltham, together we're delivering world-class arts and culture to town centres, public spaces and riverside locations across Greenwich. From brand new immersive theatre co-created with some of our refugee communities, to world-renowned dance performances, this year's Greenwich and Docklands International Festival will celebrate the unique heritage of the people of our borough and entertain local residents and visitors."

Further details of the new highlights announced today:

Silence! is Greenwich+Docklands International Festival 2024's exhilarating opening event with stunning visuals and soul-stirring live percussion. In this epic spectacle, world-renowned French artists Les Commando Percu combine pyrotechnics with heart pounding drums. As the sun sets over the historic backdrop of the Royal Artillery Barracks, a hushed silence precedes the rising roll of the drums and first streaks of light in the sky. What follows is an enrapturing party of light, sound and togetherness.

A Ballad of Thamesmead conceived by pioneering site specific theatre company Dante or Die was inspired by the gifting of the 18th century Thamesmead Clock Tower in 1986 and the stories of families putting down roots in a ‘town of tomorrow'. This theatrical co-created portrait of a community will be a joyous blend of site-responsive storytelling, live music and spectacular lighting, creating an immersive experience unravelling the experiences of an ever-changing town.

Multi-award-winning theatre companies Good Chance and Gecko present From Here On, a groundbreaking physical theatre performance about children's right to safe passage, whoever they are, wherever they are from. An exploration of displacement, movement and being forced to find a new home, From Here On marks the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport, when nearly 10,000 Jewish children were given safe passage to the UK from Nazi-occupied Europe. 40 young people from around the world, now based in London, will take to the stage alongside Gecko's professional ensemble outside Liverpool Street Station to create a powerful new work crossing borders, cultures and generations. An artistic call for empathy and hope, standing in solidarity with partners Safe Passage International and their vital work to ensure routes to safety for refugees and family reunification for all unaccompanied children around the world.

French urban acrobatic artists Lézards Bleus present a surprising and interactive performance through Greenwich Peninsula's stunning architectural landscape. Life Lines celebrates the limitless potential of human creativity and adaptability. Audiences follow six urban acrobats on a thrilling journey that transforms public spaces and structures into stages for a series of site-responsive parkour spectaculars.

World Kiosk presented by Variable Matter's award-winning founder David Shearing is an intimate sound installation in the shape of a mysterious and sensory laden pop-up street kiosk. Sip tea, read the special edition newspaper and discover hidden stories. For five magical days in Queen's Square in Newham, global and local communities collide bringing faraway strangers and their experiences a little bit closer.

Two “festivals within the festival” bookend GDIF 2024 on the opening and closing weekends respectively; Parkworks,GDIF's new two day programme of  family-friendly performances provides a theatrical playground for children whilst Dancing City returns to GDIF in an exciting new location featuring a mix of international and UK artists in a day-long celebration of free outdoor dance.

Previously announced highlights include:

THAW is the European premiere of an epic creation by Australian physical theatre company Legs On The Wall in response to the devastating bushfires of 2019/20. The performance, taking place at the University of East London's Docklands Campus, brings Londoners face to face with the urgent need for global climate action through a powerful performance which takes place over 8 hours. This aerial feat on a 2.5 tonne block of ice gathers intensifying power and urgency as the ice, suspended on a crane high above the iconic landscape of Newham's Royal Docks, gradually melts away. The performance repeated the following day will be filmed by London Filmed and livestreamed online, with further details of how global audiences can tune in to be announced closer to the time. 

Bodies of Water is a new site-specific show which marks the third collaboration between Actors Touring Company (ATC) and GDIF following 2023's sell-out, critically acclaimed production The Architect. Co-created with local sanctuary seeking communities and experienced on the shore of the Thames at the Ahoy! Centre in Deptford, Greenwich, this moving theatrical experience responds to Warsan Shire's (Lemonade and Black is King with Beyoncé) poem HOME. Matthew Xia directs with dramaturgy by Francesca Beard featuring live music by Britain's most celebrated Oud player Rihab Azar.

Touch combines the theatrical use of a flight of stairs and gravity-defying trampoline choreography, by renowned French dancer and choreographer Yoann Bourgeois whose performances have gone viral around the world following recent collaborations with Harry Styles, P!nk and Missy Elliott. This UK premiere will be performed to an extraordinary electro-synth Daft Punk soundtrack at Stratford Cross – a thriving destination in East London and the gateway to East Bank, the UK's exciting new cultural quarter on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Patois, GDIF's flagship 2024 commission, will perform in four locations during the festival in Greenwich, Woolwich, Abbey Wood and Stratford. Created by Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE (Eurovision 2023, London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Pageant), the renowned choreographer reawakens the unwritten language of Patois, telling a story of culture, lost languages, longing and belonging. Blending captivating traditional Caribbean choreography with exhilarating contemporary dance and an original Caribbean-folk score, Patois reawakens cultures, stories and generations of the past. 

Pram People is a delightful ‘buggietastic' child-friendly show at Stratford Park. Australian children's theatre company Polyglot rolls out the red carpet for prams of all shapes and sizes, with an invitation for families to participate in an immersive celebration of community. Presented in partnership with Discover Children's Story Centre, participants will be invited to decorate their buggies in colourful ribbons and then use headphones to follow playful audio prompts and clues which lead to a synchronized pram-party in a moving celebration of community and parent-child connection.

Further information about the full programme can be found here: festival.org/GDIF-2024

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