Three Weekends Remain of River Stage Festival on London's South Bank

River Stage, London's largest free outdoor arts festival organised by the National Theatre in partnership with five of the UK's leading arts and culture organisations has three weekends left, with leading dance venue Sadler's Wells making its debut this Friday.

The award winning Breakin' Convention will open the weekend with the best in hip hop theatre. Not only will there be performances of beatboxing, turntablism and rap, but there will also be dance workshops and a DJ set to close the evening.

Saturday and Sunday sees a range of performances and workshops for all the family covering a range of dance styles, from ballroom to lindy hop. Step Change Studios will perform excerpts from Fusion, the UK's first ballroom showcase for disabled and non-disabled dancers. There's also traditional and contemporary flamenco with female trio Dotdotdot Dance, and Vidya Patel & Shammi Pithia will perform their new work Converse for the first time, a unique blend of Kathak dance and contemporary music. Sunday's programme includes the collaborative dance performance The Dance WE Made by Casson & Friends; a performance by the Company of Elders, Sadler's Wells' resident company of over-60s performers; and London's most radical and vivacious ceilidh band, the Ceilidh Liberation Front.

Also making its first appearance at River Stage is nonclassical, who take to the stage from Friday 3rd bringing together the best in new classical, electronic and experimental music. On Friday night, Klavikon (Leon Michener) plays live techno prepared piano, including hamster wheel, before Tom Richards presents an idiosyncratic and infectious demonstration of his modular synthesizer setup. Elsewhere, there's renaissance music and live improvisations from cello trio Tre Voci; an exploration of the work of 20th century female composers from Sarah Dacey; music for cello and tape, plus jazz vibraphone, from Cecilia Bignall; a unique performance of Gabriel Prokofiev's 'Cello Multitracks', led by Peter Gregson; the joyfully anarchic jazz/classical/rock collective DOLLYman; while DJs across the weekend include Late Junction's Nick Luscombe and the genre-bending turntablist Mr Switch.

The National Theatre is programming the final festival weekend from Friday 10th August with a mix of family focused workshops, sing along bands, a groundbreaking new circus show, a tea dance and live music and DJ's. The weekend will end with a screening of the National Theatre Live recording of the NT's recent production of Stephen Sondheim's classic musical Follies, winner of Best Musical Revival at this year's Olivier awards starring Olivier award winning actress Imelda Staunton. Hertz is the Official Transport Provider to the National Theatre, and will be supporting the weekend with a series of fun activities and prize giveaways.

River Stage is now in its fourth year of bringing free entertainment to audiences outside the National Theatre. With the NT's mission to be as 'open, diverse, as collaborative and as national as possible', the festival showcases the best artists from across the UK, presenting an eclectic and exciting mix of dance, theatre and music. Last year the festival saw over 40,000 people attend making it London's biggest free outdoor arts festival. Delta is the Official Airline Partner for River Stage.

Rufus Norris, Artistic Director of the National Theatre said,' I am delighted that Riverstage is back for the 4th year running - it's been such a resounding success for the past 3 years, and has become a vital part of our summer programming. This year's festival is set to be as thrilling as ever and I am really pleased that we are partnering, once again, with a wide range of organisations from around the UK. The eclectic mix of artists - some familiar faces from previous years and some brand new - will be bringing their music, dance, theatre and more so there will be something for everyone. And the key thrill for me is seeing the crowds of new faces that Riverstage brings to the South Bank. We're looking forward to welcoming everyone in July.'

River Stage runs from Friday 13th July to Sunday 12th August and all events are free. For more details go to the website

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