Festival Highlights
Our summer-long Festival of the World is made up of many smaller festivals and weekends. Together they create our story showing how art is changing the globe in surprising and exciting ways. Here are some of the highlights.
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Priceless London Wonderground
A brand new festival of cabaret, circus and curiosities
Prepare yourself for a magnificent, brand-new amusement ground for the capital. A world of circus, sideshows and strange curiosities. At its heart lies a colossal Spiegeltent bursting with a programme of the finest international cabaret, music and circus.
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E4 Udderbelly
The best of comedy, music, theatre and family shows
E4 Udderbelly Festival at Southbank Centre is back for its fourth ox-hilarating year. The steaks are high as we welcome some of the hottest names in comedy, theatre and music to our 400 seated upside-down purple cow.
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Summer Shows
A summer of circus, comedy, immersive theatre and family shows
Join us at Southbank Centre for a summer of spectacular circus from across the globe including Rouge from Cambodia and Donka from Russia, comedy from Stewart Lee, Dave Gorman and Sandi Toksvig, plus the beautiful family show The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly and immersive theatre with Hotel Medea.
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Wide Open School
Classes by 80 international artists as they re-invent school
For Festival of the World Hayward Gallery transforms into Wide Open School – a summer school with classes devised and taught by over 100 international artists. Among these are Tracey Emin and Bob and Roberta Smith, Marlene Dumas, Thomas Hirschhorn, Ernesto Neto and Shimabuku.
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Invisible: Art about the Unseen, 1957–2012
Ideas that explore invisible art from the past half century
Invisible Art brings together works from the past half century that explore ideas related to the invisible and the hidden. The exhibition includes work by some of the most important artists of our time as well as younger artists who have expanded on their legacy. Artists in the exhibition include Jeppe Hein, Tom Friedman, Carsten Höller, Tehching Hsieh, Yves Klein, Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol.
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Sounds Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel’s phenomenal orchestra returns
The sensational series Sounds Venezuela returns for a third year, welcoming back the superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel and his electric Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. The festival celebrates Venezuela’s Sistema, a world-famous programme designed to connect young people from underprivileged backgrounds with classical music.
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Festival summit: Art will change the world
Join the conversation with inspiring change makers
Professionals and enthusiasts gather for a day of conversations, hands-on learning, performances, workshops, challenging questions and calls to action – all encouraging art for social change. Contributors include Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director Jude Kelly and Jose Abreu, founder of the Venezuelan El Sistema. There are many inspiring speakers and activists at the summit, including Miss Dynamite, Julian Lloyd Webber, Afroreggae, Baroness Soames, Baaba Maal and Batuta’s Juan Antonio Cuellar.
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Poetry Parnassus
The UK's largest gathering of world poets
The world’s poets are coming to London – meet them, hear them and celebrate with them at Southbank Centre. There are over 100 free events, activities and workshops happening every day throughout the festival. The world’s most exciting poets, rappers, spoken word artists, singers and storytellers are gathering for this huge event that will make history as the largest poetry festival ever staged in the UK.
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Africa Utopia
Challenging the world’s view of Africa through art, culture and debate
Africa Utopia is a month-long festival of music, theatre, film, literature, dance, fashion, talks and debates programmed by Southbank Centre in conjunction with renowned Senegalese singer and human-rights campaigner Baaba Maal.
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London Literature Festival
The best authors, speakers, performers and debates: be part of it
The world comes to London this summer with a global array of writers, artists and activists from across Africa and the Arab region and dispatches from Mumbai, China and the Caribbean – including Siri Hustvedt, John Pilger and Saul Williams.
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BrynFest
Opera superstar Bryn Terfel shares his musical world
Much-loved bass-baritone Bryn Terfel is celebrated in this four-day festival of Welsh and international musical talent. At the heart of BrynFest are four Royal Festival Hall performances that see Bryn with West End stars performing songs from musical theatre’s golden age, and with opera stars treating audiences to an evening of classic opera arias. The festival climaxes with Bryn’s Big Sing where you can join Bryn and hundreds of others to belt out rousing Welsh songs on the Royal Festival Hall terraces.
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U.Dance
The UK's best young dancers unite on stage
Join us for U.Dance 2012, a festival bringing together some of the best young dance groups from across the UK. Take part in three days of performances and workshops, and see dancers in rehearsals.
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New Music 20x12
20 bite-size pieces mixing up jazz, folk and experimental music
The New Music 20x12 Weekend Celebration at Southbank Centre presents 20 new compositions of 12 minutes in length. They encompass a range of genres and composers – from jazz to folk, brass bands to contemporary classical. These commissions are all inspired by the dynamism of sport – the passion of human endeavour and the once in a lifetime opportunity of creating a musical work contributing to a global celebration.
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Antony's Meltdown
Music festival curated by Mercury Prize-winning musician and visual artist Antony
Meltdown 2012 sees musician and visual artist Antony join a list of the world's most distinguished musicians in hand-picking their ideal festival. Having begun his career in the New York underground scene, Antony shot to prominence with Antony and the Johnsons with the Mercury Prize-winning album I am a Bird Now. Critical acclaim has followed each of his projects including the album Swanlights, and his performance at last summer's The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, directed by Robert Wilson. Artists featured at Meltdown 2012 include Laurie Anderson, CocoRosie, Lou Reed, Elizabeth Fraser, Marc Almond, Planningtorock, Hal Willner: Freedom Rides, William Basinski, Diamanda Galás and many more.
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Unlimited
Comedy, dance, performance and art by deaf and disabled artists
Unlimited celebrates disability, arts, culture and sport on an unprecedented scale and encourages disabled and deaf artists to push beyond their personal best alongside Paralympic athletes, by creating work which opens doors, changes minds, and inspires new collaborations.
