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Image Credit: © Oliver Crawford

This year’s award-winning festival of FREE outdoor arts and theatre takes place across 18 days in London from the 25th August – 10th September. The 2023 programme is bringing together UK and international artists in a programme of ground-breaking outdoor theatre, performance, art, dance and circus in iconic public spaces across the Royal Borough of Greenwich, East London and the City of London.

This year, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF) has adopted the theme of “Acts of Hope”, offering a free festival of uplifting moments for reflection, creativity and celebration. Take a theatrical journey on a London bus, marvel as illuminated swans perform a water ballet and enter an immersive shipping container with a trampoline for a roof.

Programme:
Open Lines (25th August)
Venue: General Gordon Square, Woolwich, SE18 6AB
Time: 7:00pm [Duration: 45mins]
One woman. One high wire. One hundred feet above you.

This heart-stopping spectacle is performed by internationally renowned tight-rope walker Tatiana Mosio Bongonga. With the help of twelve extraordinary people drawn from the local community, she will make an astonishing crossing, opening GDIF 2023 with an act of fearless optimism.

Weaving precise balance with live music and epic outdoor aerial acrobatics, this unmissable one-night-only event celebrates the importance of collective endeavour in creating togetherness and hope.

Greenwich Fair (26th August)
Venue: Greenwich Town Centre
Time: 1:00pm - 7:00pm 
Family-friendly street arts, theatre, circus, installations and dance take over the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, Cutty Sark Gardens and Greenwich Park in GDIF’s much loved festival within a festival. 

Woman, Life, Freedom! (26th August)
Venue: Stratford Park, Stratford, E15 4PT
Time: 8:00pm [Duration: 30mins]
“Woman, Life, Freedom!” has become the rallying roar of Iran’s protest movement following the death of Mahsa Amini almost a year ago.

This stirring production reveals the colour, warmth and vitality of Iranian culture, for which a courageous young generation are currently fighting.

Unearthing the extraordinary music and voices of women, which, in Iran cannot be heard freely, this is street theatre at its most powerful and impactful.

Ancient Futures (27th and 28th August)
Venue: The Moorings, Thamesmead
Time: 2:00pm & 6:30pm [Duration: 45mins]
The Afrinauts, a crew of curious visitors from another world, touch down in Thamesmead, inviting audiences to join a spectacular dance party combining circus, storytelling and sound system culture.

Featuring new music by grime artist Afrikan Boy and created in collaboration with Quantum poet Oneness Sankara, this ritual celebration combines West African folklore, fantasy and science fiction, to imagine inspiring and inclusive futures.

On Your Doorstep (27th, 28th, 31st August & 2nd September)
Venue: Various locations around the boroughA family friendly, Hip Hop, theatre, circus, dance and street arts, on your doorstep.
Join in the fun in Abbeywood Park Playground, Glyndon Estate Basketball Court, Deptford’s Twinkle Park and Eltham High Street.

Resurgam (31st August - 2nd September)
Venue: St Paul’s Cathedral
Time: 6:15pm - 6:45pm [Duration: 20mins]
Look up in wonder, as one of the world’s most extraordinary vertical dance companies present this breathtaking performance on the iconic façade of Wren’s masterpiece, St Paul’s Cathedral. 

An enduring symbol of hope for Londoners for more than 300 years, director Melecio Estrella has taken inspiration from the inscription Resurgam (I shall rise), carved onto the south portico of the cathedral, to create this awe-inspiring performance, which explores what it takes to be optimistic in challenging time

Cygnus (31st August - 3rd September)
Venue: Royal Victoria Dock
Time: 8:15pm - 11:00pm [Continuous]
A regatta of 12 life-sized swans perform a poetic ballet on the surface of the Royal Victoria Dock.

Drifting on the still water as darkness falls, this mysterious and beautiful installation fuses robotics and romanticism, as incredible formations are formed against a wash of magical light, sound and music.

Sliding Slope (2nd & 3d September)
Venue: Royal Docks
Time: 1:30pm & 6:45pm [Duration: 35mins]
Four people fight for survival on the rooftop of a submerged house.  

Inspired by the North Sea Flood of 1953, this urgent and timely performance brings a devastating historical disaster up to date in the face of rising sea water levels and the destructive effects of global warming.  

This production, in which the dramatic predicament of people clinging on desperately for their lives, shines a light on our central dilemma of denial, at a time when the climate change clock continues to count down.   

PAN~ // CATWALK (6th, 7th, 9th & 10th September)
Venue: Canary Wharf
Time: 1:30pm & 4:00pm  [Duration: 40mins]
Two performers, one catwalk and a never-ending row of outfits. 

From a worn-out denim jacket to an extravagant glitter dress, our clothes are an expression of who we are, want to be, and sometimes have to be.

Through a fusion of fashion, choreography, live music and theatre, this performance, challenges the urge to label or judge others based on how they appear, revealing instead a mind-opening celebration of fluidity and self-expression. 

The Architect (6th September – 10th September) - Book Now!
Venue: *Secret South East London location / General Gordon Square, Woolwich
Time: 6:30pm & 8:30pm / Saturday & Sunday Matinees: 2:30pm [Duration: 55mins] 
The Architect is an immersive theatrical journey through time and a city conceived by Mojisola Adebayo, Roy Williams and Matthew Xia, and created with a collective of leading Black artists including Bola Agbaje, Dexter Flanders, Vanessa Macauley and XANA.

Audiences will travel aboard an iconic red bus and be transported across South-East London. This new production asks how we create a blueprint for the future, three decades after the senseless murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Produced by Actors Touring Comapny and GDIF, in association with the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation.

“The Architect’ is a powerful example of how storytelling can create empathy, understanding and hope in communities, and we are so proud that Stephen’s legacy is being supported by GDIF, Matthew Xia and the Actors Touring Company as they bring this important production to life.”

RoZéO (2nd & 3rd September)
Venue: Peninsula Square, SE10 0ES
Time: 2:30pm & 5:30pm [Duration: 30mins]
Perched on 10m high poles, 3 performers create a poetic ritual offering a moment of calm, reflection and wonder.

This living installation is inspired by nature and invites you to immerse yourself in the landscape and the beauty of the outdoors. Take a deep breath, settle down and look up as Gratte Ciel’s virtuosic and entrancing performers take to the sky.

Dancing City (9th & 10th September)
Venue: Canary Wharf
Two extraordinary days of outdoor dance transform the piazzas, parks and waterfronts of Canary Wharf. Discover a spectacular alfresco programme of international and UK dance featuring contemporary, ballet, hip hop, kathak and choreography on  trampoline. 

* All shows are FREE and unticketed, except 'The Architect'.

* Supported by the Royal Borough of Greenwich