The Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) marks its 30th anniversary this autumn with free outdoor theatre, circus and dance performances from 30 international companies. Celebrated for its free outdoor arts since 1996, the festival has been praised by the Guardian as one of the best festivals in the UK.
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This year, the GDIF will host its free outdoor arts programme over 17 days between 22 August and 6 September, across Greenwich, Newham, and Thamesmead. Highlights of this year’s festival include:
This year’s festival theme Above and Beyond is embodied by French parkour artists Lézards Bleus who will open the festival with a heart-stopping, roof hopping performance of virtuosic movement across landmark buildings in Woolwich with new music by Roma Yagnik and Greenwich-based Citizens of the World Choir (Friday 22 August, Woolwich).
Greenwich Fair over the Bank Holiday weekend (23 & 24 August, Greenwich Park) has plenty of free outdoor performances for families headlined by Epiphytes, an all-female high-wire walk above London framed by an iconic panoramic view, presented by Cie Des Chaussons Rouges from Belgium.
Engineering and performance collide over the course of a weekend in Turning Worlds as 4 spectacular shows fuse the worlds of circus, physics and robotics (30 & 31 August, Greenwich Peninsula).
The world premiere of Fragments of Us celebrates the endless possibilities of black masculinity through poetry and movement in this bold new collaboration between the UK’s leading Black theatre company Talawa and acclaimed Black British dance company Fubunation, directed by award-winning artist Sonia Hughes (Thursday 4 September, Woolwich)
Go Grandad Go! (Thursday 4 September 1.30pm & 3.30pm, General Gordon Square) is a joyous celebration of inter-generational family relationships and Caribbean culture by Company DHW that combines hip hop dance and storytelling. With relatable characters, infectious moves and fully integrated access, this is a feel-good show for all ages, which will have you joining in and leave you with a smile on your face.
The extraordinary water-based spectacle The Weight of Water from Dutch company Panama Pictures is a powerful response to the climate crisis that merges dance, circus and live music on water (Friday 5 & Saturday 6 September, Thamesmead).
In a new partnership with New York’s Fire Island Dance Festival, GDIF welcomes
world-class LGBTQIA+ artists to Dancing City, the celebrated dance-focused ‘festival
within the festival’ on Saturday 6 September.
In this landmark 30th year, GDIF’s reinvention of the original fair brings together a packed programme of uplifting, fun and disruptive street theatre, games and family fun to the beautifully relandscaped Wolfe Statue Piazza at the top of Greenwich Park Hill.
The festival aims to provide an uplifting, free, and accessible experience with a diverse program of free events for everyone to enjoy. GDIF is the flagship annual event produced by festival.org, one of the Europe’s leading outdoor arts producing organisations and charities, renowned for producing ambitious, inclusive and accessible outdoor events in the UK and beyond.
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