GDIF 2024 | London’s free, annual outdoor performing arts festival 23 August-8 September 2024
Throughout the year FESTIVAL.ORG delivers an ambitious programme of new productions and commissions. Committed to breaking new ground for outdoor arts in the UK and internationally, FESTIVAL.ORG’s initiatives encompass in-house productions, residencies, investment in R&D, local engagement projects, new commissions and co-commissions.
Over the years FESTIVAL.ORG has delivered large scale productions and ceremonies, international outdoor theatre productions and co-productions, community engagement and place-making projects as well as a wide range of commissioned and co-commissioned new work encompassing theatre, dance, circus, street arts and installation.
Impulse
2024
Discover a luminous and interactive winter playground in London’s Eastern City. Nestled between the Gherkin and the Leadenhall Building, Impulse transforms a bustling corner of
London into a joyful play space that will delight audiences of all ages. This free award winning artwork comprised of 6 enormous seesaws responds to your movement with illuminating light and multisensory sound


Sparkle in the Park
2024
Spectacular installations and performances, wonderful winter markets, a festive funfair and many more treats come together for one unmissable Christmas experience in the heart of the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
Elysian Arcs
2024
Presented in partnership with the EC BID, Elysian Arcs transformed an iconic city landmark into a haven of inflatable art and atmospheric sound. These enormous inflatable archways and spheres created an atmospheric walk-through experience that encouraged reflection and wellbeing.


Ukrainian Dreams
2023
Following the success of Ukraine: Bits Destroyed in 2022, FESTIVAL.ORG collaborated with Rock N Light Studio and Tais Poda for the second time on Ukrainian Dreams.
The vivid and wildly imaginative works of Ukraine’s best loved artist were brought to life in this audio-visual spectacle at Liverpool’s River of Light Festival from Oct – Nov 2023.
Black Victorians International Tour
2023
This powerful dance performance by Artistic Director and Choreographer Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE is inspired by nineteenth century studio photographs of black men, women and children.
The 2023 tour of Black Victorians visits Portugal, Antwerp, London and Bournemouth from 14 July – 30 September. The tour concluded with special performances at the British Museum on 4 Nov.


Evanescent
2023
Evanescent is the free outdoor immersive installation by Australian artists Atelier Sisu. Brought to London for the first time to shake off January blues, this atmospheric light and sound environment encourages Londoners to gaze with wonder at the constantly shifting rainbow of reflections and see the world in a new light between 16 January – 10 February.
LIT!
2022
In partnership with We Are Lewisham and Lewisham London Borough of Culture, FESTIVAL.ORG brought ambitious outdoor arts to a finale event in Beckenham Place Park.
The magical giant puppet Dundu and spherical light installation Lightweight will bring magical highlights to the spectacular finale of Lewisham London Borough of Culture 2022, immersing audiences in winter illuminations, puppetry and live music.


Globoscope
2021
Globoscope is an immersive installation made from hundreds of luminous spheres. Using digital technologies, Collectif Coin invites you to discover familiar places in a new light.
Borealis
2021
Borealis by Dan Acher offers a mesmerising must-see moment of awe and wonder, lighting up the heart of the City of London.
This spectacular immersive installation, inspired by the Northern Lights, will light up the skies over Guildhall Yard. Time seems to slow down as eyes look up at Dan Acher’s spectacular installation.


Newham Unlocked Festival
2021
FESTIVAL.ORG were delighted to produce several events as part of Newham Unlocked Festival.
Check out some of the highlights here.
Black Victorians
2021
This dance performance by Artistic Director and Choreographer Jeanefer Jean-Charles was inspired by nineteenth century studio photographs of black men, women and children. Exploring a complex, but often forgotten black presence in pre-Windrush Britain, this performance calls attention to previously “hidden figures” and challenges historical and contemporary perceptions.
Watch our highlights film for Black Victorians at GDIF 2021 here.
First presented at GDIF 2020, the full production is now touring across the UK. Commissioned by FESTIVAL.ORG, Without Walls, and Hat Fair.

Black Victorians 2021 Tour
28-29 May – Brighton Festival
30-31 May – Salisbury International Arts Festival
27 June – 101 Outdoor Arts Festival, Newbury
3-4 July – Hat Fair, Winchester
24-25 July – Milton Keynes International Festival
30-31 July – Stockton International Riverside Festival
31 August-2 September & 10-11 September – Greenwich+Docklands International Festival, London

Passenger
2019
A conversation between two passengers on a bus is the starting point for this intimate yet epic story, blurring the line between reality and fiction in an immersive and all-encompassing experience. First presented in Melbourne, FESTIVAL.ORG worked with artist Jessica Wilson to re-conceive and produce Passenger for these UK performances, set against the background of a journey through London’s Royal Docks.
Beautiful Thing
2018
This iconic, optimistic love story about teenage boys Jamie and Ste was given a homecoming in a reimagined dance-theatre production of Jonathan Harvey’s well-loved play. Co-directed by Bradley Hemmings and Robby Graham, and produced by FESTIVAL.ORG, Beautiful Thing took place on and around the original south Thamesmead locations where Harvey’s play was set and marked the 50th anniversary of the first families moving into this utopian riverside community.


Icarus
2018
Icarus is an outdoor dance-theatre interpretation by Southpaw Dance Company of the famous Greek myth exploring a universal human story: the tension between ambition and reality. Using daring physicality, leaps, jumps and lifting, audiences experience Icarus’ obsession with the skies and his quest to achieve flight. Co-commissioned by FESTIVAL.ORG and The Place through Stomping Ground, Icarus has been presented across the UK and Europe.
Great North Star
2018
Commissioned by DCMS and produced by FESTIVAL.ORG, Great North Star brought the 2018 Great Exhibition of the North to a spectacular close in Newcastle Gateshead, with a large-scale ceremony featuring narration, mass choreography, music, aerial performance and pyrotechnics. Written by Louise Wallwein and directed by Bradley Hemmings, the performance was presented in association with Great North Run and broadcast by the BBC.


Rise!
2018
This spectacular processional performance, featuring giant puppetry from the French company L’Homme Debout, celebrated the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, which gave some women in the UK the right to vote for the first time. FESTIVAL.ORG worked with the company and local cultural practitioners to seed a range of community engagement elements that were embedded within the show, celebrating local stories and themes. To date Rise! has been presented in Woolwich, Hull, Luton and Doncaster.
Windrush:492
2018
70 years to the day that the Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Dock from the Caribbean, this specially commissioned installation saw the names of the 492 individuals who arrived on that ship transcribed in photolumiscent powder onto the ground around the Cutty Sark. Accompanied by a soundscape written by Roy Williams, in collaboration with the Caribbean Social Forum and composer Darren J Benjamin, FESTIVAL.ORG conceived and produced this reflective tribute to the Windrush generation.


Silence
2016
Famed for its legendary street theatre production Carmen Funebre, which explored the impact of war on civilians, Polish company Teatr Biuro Podrozy presented the world premiere of a sequel, co-commissioned by FESTIVAL.ORG, Freedom Festival and Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Physical theatre, fire, unusual staging, puppetry and music picked up on the continuing story of refugees and migrants caught up in a spiral of war, fences, and the dream of escape. Silence has since been seen across the UK and Europe.
Heritage Flame Ceremony
2016
Celebrating diversity, sport and the arts, in 2016 Stoke Mandeville Stadium hosted a Paralympic Flame Lighting Ceremony, the only one to be held outside of the host nation, Brazil. Conceived and produced by FESTIVAL.ORG, the ceremony brought 100 local residents together with performers from StopGap Dance and visual artist Rachel Gadsden to celebrate Stoke Mandeville as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.


The House
2016
Conceived and produced by FESTIVAL.ORG, this specially commissioned spectacle marked the 400th anniversary of the Queen’s House and its reopening in 2016. Featuring Sharon D Clarke, the voice of Sir Ian McKellen and Avant Garde Dance Company, The House brought together narration, digital projection, dance, music and pyrotechnics in a production which reflected on stories of migration on the night following the 2016 European Referendum.
The Four Fridas
2015
Conceived and produced by FESTIVAL.ORG and inspired by the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, The Four Fridas was presented as part of a wider intergovernmental year of Mexico in the UK and featured a ritual performance by the Voladoras – flying women – from Mexico, alongside aerial choreography from Wired Aerial Theatre, dance from Schechter Junior, video projection, original music and pyrotechnics.


Great North Run One Million
2014
Newcastle Gateshead Quayside and the River Tyne were transformed into a huge outdoor arena for an Opening Ceremony which marked the start of the official countdown to the millionth finish of the Great North Run in South Shields in September 2014. Written by David Almond and directed by Bradley Hemmings, the production told the incredible story of the North East, and featured local hero Mark Knopfler, Mercury Music Prize nominees The Unthanks, platinum-selling drum’n’bass Chase & Status, Ant and Dec, Jill Halfpenny and Tim Healy.
The Garden
2010
Commissioned as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad from an original idea by FESTIVAL.ORG, The Garden offers gravity-defying outdoor theatre from Graeae, one of the UK’s leading D/deaf & disabled theatre companies. As beautifully composed music fills the sky, Graeae take to four-metre high sway poles to create new stories high in the air, creating a contemporary Garden of Eden in which love and verdant growth and sweet-smelling flowers struggle to survive in an ever-changing environment. Having enchanting people across the UK and Europe, The Garden has also travelled to Brazil and will be seen in Japan as part of the Tokyo 2020 Cultural Olympiad programme.
