All the weird, wild and wonderful were out in Woolwich town centre for the opening of Greenwich+Docklands Festival 2025, the festival that celebrates its 30th year, the boroughs of Greenwich, Newham and the Thamesmead Estate and the artists from around the world that come together to make it happen, writes Michael Holland.
And what an opening it was! To embody this year’s theme of Above and Beyond, the French parkour artists Lézards Bleu hopped, skipped, jumped and defied death more than once as they did their thing on some of the more iconic buildings in SE18, like the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse, and the former Woolwich Equitable Building Society headquarters, plus other less distinguished structures but no less exciting as they clambered up, inched along, hung from, jumped off and gave us 45 minutes of oohs and aahs and sharp intakes of breath as we followed their journey that culminated in the eight men standing atop a Grade II listed building to declare this festival well and truly open. All this was performed to dramatic new music by Roma Yagnik that enhanced the choreographed acrobatics the crowd looked up to – truly above and beyond.
From there we adjourned to the Tramshed where speeches were made and glasses raised in toast for a magnificent 30 years of arts and culture on our streets – And every single event free.
Thirty companies from around the world will perform new work under the Above and Beyond theme this year: Poetry and movement will celebrate Black masculinity in the world premiere of Fragments of Us in a collaboration between the UK’s leading Black theatre company Talawa and acclaimed Black British dance company Fubunation, directed by award-winning artist Sonia Hughes.
A 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 in Thamesmead.
The much-loved Greenwich Fair returns to its historic nineteenth century home in Greenwich Park. 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. Framed by London’s best view, this performance offers new perspectives on our relationship with the natural world and will provide extraordinary images of the festival theme in action.
On the Greenwich Peninsular, engineering and performance collide over the course of a weekend in Turning Worlds as four spectacular shows fuse the worlds of circus, physics and robotics.
Bradley Hemmings MBE, GDIF’s Artistic Director, says: ‘We’ve learned that there are no edges or boundaries in outdoor theatre and the usual distinctions between art and the everyday are often miraculously blurred. This year our “stage” stretches out in all directions – across parks, town centres, basketball courts, roofs and a water space, whilst we also invite audiences to look up, both physically and imaginatively.’
There will be artists from Syria, Sweden, New York, Belgium and London, of course; there will be dance, high-wire walking, performance art, comedy, circus, storytelling, puppetry, the list goes on. There will be daily happenings in sites spread over the two boroughs – far too many to mention.
Writer, and Greenwich resident, Fiona Hughes has written Above and Beyond: 30 Years of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival to celebrate the three decades of the festival.
Until 6th September. Full details of all events: https://festival.org/gdif-2025/
