What’s on at Greenwich and Docklands International Festival
Greenwich Docklands International Festival (GDIF) has announced its full 2024 programme of events and it is jam packed with everything from theatre to art installations, music and family friendly playground take-overs.
More than 50 free performances will take place across 17 days, from August 23 of the Summer Bank Holiday weekend until September 8.
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 all part of this year’s festival inspired by the theme All Change.
Many events invite participation and five productions have been co-created with people from the area. All of the listed entertainment will take place in public spaces across Greenwich, Newham and the City of London.
Kicking it all off on August 23, the worlds of pyrotechnics and percussion collide 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 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 community and creativity.
Throughout the festival other large-scale productions include Lézards Bleus Life Lines, a Parkour performance staged across the multi-storey architecture of Greenwich Peninsula.
Multi-award-winning theatre companies, Good Chance and Gecko will premiere From Here On, a theatre performance about children’s right to safe passage, performed by 40 young people alongside the Gecko ensemble in the City of London.
More theatre world premieres include Dante or Die’s A Ballad of Thamesmead in Thamesmead and the previously announced Bodies of Water by Actors Touring Company, performed on the shore of the Thames in Greenwich.
For the first time GDIF will transform 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.
Families are 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.
A spokeswoman for Greenwich council said: “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.”
Pictured top: South Asian dance and storytelling in Sonia Sabri’s Moghul Miniatures (Picture: Dante or Die)
