The Greenwich and Docklands International Festival is making a spectacular full return later this month and has announced an exciting full line-up for 2021.
GDIF 2021 say they are putting free outdoor arts 'centre-stage' as they emerge from the pandemic with a full programme running from August 27 to September 11.
The iconic international performing arts festival will play out across Greenwich, Thamesmead, the Royal Docks, Canary Wharf and the City of London.
This year will focus on "what we've learned over the past 18 months," celebrating our reconnection with the natural world and offering children and young people space for creativity and joy.
GDIF’s Artistic Director, Bradley Hemmings said: “GDIF 2021 explores what we’ve learned over the past 18 months, placing the great outdoors at the heart of an optimistic and forward-looking artistic programme, whilst celebrating difference, diversity and inclusion with productions which transform perceptions and call for change.”
Highlights include:
• A site responsive production of Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills
• Two monumental works from Swiss artist Dan Acher, We Are Watching, and Borealis, a recreation of the Northern Lights over Greenwich and Woolwich
• Family Tree by Mojisola Adebayo, directed by Matthew Xia in a site-responsive promenade work-in-progress production co-commissioned by ATC and the Young Vic
• Quays Culture’s Mystery Bird, a giant birdcage with soundscape and projection
• Reflection Gardens and After the Storm, magical Thames-side spectacles created by Walk the Plank on 2 sites in Woolwich and the Royal Docks
• Requardt & Rosenberg’s new dance work, Future Cargo, presented from a shipping container in the Royal Docks
• Two days of outdoor dance with 9 companies in Canary Wharf in Dancing City
• Jeanefer Jean-Charles’ Black Victorians at the Guildhall Yard in the City of London and Woolwich
• The return of the popular ‘festival within a festival’, Greenwich Fair
As part of a new two-year partnership with the Diplomatic Representation of Flanders to the UK, GDIF presents De Roovers’ site-responsive production of Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills at a site in Thamesmead which has been officially closed to the public for more than 100 years.
Antwerp-based theatre company Laika will bring their sensory, immersive experience Balsam, in which live music combines with the creation of aromatic, healing potions and elixirs; and Flanders’ vibrant circus and outdoor arts sector will also be represented by League and Legend from 15feet6 and Automata Carousel by Geert Hautekiet.
This significant new partnership sets out to inspire cross-cultural working between the culturally vibrant and diverse destinations of Flanders and London.
Jan Jambon, minister-president of Flanders, said today: ‘Flanders is known for its outstanding and innovative performing arts.
This year, we are more than happy to showcase some of this talent in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and invite you to enjoy the work of De Roovers, Laika, Geert Hautekiet and 15feet6.
This partnership is perhaps even more precious this year, because in times of crisis, culture brings hope. Covid-19 has reaffirmed the importance of culture and our basic need to engage with it.’
Some of the events will be ticketed but still free. A full line-up can be found here.
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