This year’s programme celebrated 30 years of performances in Greenwich and its surrounding boroughs with the theme of Above And Beyond
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A giant zoetrope of skeletons punting across the Styx, a vast chandelier with jazz musicians for candles swinging from a crane, huge trebuchet-like bells swinging too and fro, a slick of multicoloured foam, acrobats, dancers, performers, weird installations and cups of tea.
These are just a tiny fraction of the things the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival has brought to east and south-east London, almost all free to watch and thrillingly vibrant.
But don’t take my word for it.
To mark the 30 years organisers have been pulling this remarkable annual event together, large format coffee table book Above And Beyond by Fiona Hughes is set to go on sale to coincide with the launch of this year’s festival.
Frankly, I don’t envy the author.
Even with 160 pages to play with, boiling down the sheer quantity of shows performed over three decades must have been a tough assignment.
The team members behind GDIF, led by festival founder and artistic director Bradley Hemmings since the event’s inception, are not strangers to tricky issues, of course.
Yet somehow on a yearly basis they pull off a powerful programme of shows, finding funding, commissioning artists and emerging victorious over the organisational bothers.
a mirror: the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival
“It’s been very interesting and sometimes challenging, but the festival is in some way a mirror of people’s social and cultural lives over the last 30 years,” said Bradley.
“If you think back to the 1990s, you’d be hard-pressed to find a place where you could have a meal on the street or in a public space outside.
“There has been such an explosion of alfresco cultural experiences and there’s now a real appetite for doing things together in the open air.
“If you think of spaces around London, like Canary Wharf, they’re now designed for outdoor conviviality.
“That’s the journey we’ve gone on in a very distinctive way and we’ve thought a lot about that during our time producing the festival.
“For what we do it’s about informality – people can come and see GDIF, meet up with friends and relax.
“It’s completely accessible. It’s something you can have a conversation about, not something where you have to sit in silence in a row.
“Above And Beyond contains gorgeous photographs and very interesting storytelling by Fiona to highlight some of the companies and people who have worked with us over the years.
“I’m so proud of them all.”
GDIF 2025: Above And Beyond
“Above And Beyond” is also the theme for GDIF 2025, which kicks off on August 22, 2025, with a performance of the same name at 6.45pm in Woolwich’s Beresford Square.
We are living in anxious times, so the idea of ‘Above And Beyond’ is that there are no boundaries or walls to define outdoor arts,” said Bradley.
“There’s a continuity and it can happen anywhere – an inn, a park, a town centre, next to a dock, on a roof, or even, as this year, up in the sky.
“The opening night will feature a specially commissioned production with eight French performers from Lézards Bleus who will create an incredible, heart-stopping Parkour presentation that will take over landmark buildings in Woolwich.
“The climax will feature a collaboration with the Greenwich-based Citizens Of The World Choir made up of sanctuary-seeking people, who’ve done all sorts of exciting things including performing at Glastonbury and recording with Ed Sheeran.”
evolution and a return to Greenwich Fair
GDIF has consistently changed and evolved over the years, taking root in all kinds of locations depending on availability and funding.
For its 2025 iteration, performances are in the main split over five chunks – one in Greenwich, one on Greenwich Peninsula (home to Bradley and the organisational team) one in Woolwich, one in Thamesmead and the last in Stratford.
First up, Greenwich Park is set to host Greenwich Fair from August 23-24 with performances at various times in the area across the two days.
Bradley said: “It’s a fantastic event but quite hard for us to resource so we had to take a break last year.
“However, we’re delighted to be working with Royal Parks and Greenwich Park, to bring it back to its original home.
“The location is where the 19th century Greenwich Fair used to happen and we’ll be bringing together a programme of street art, dance, circus and installations, with a very family-friendly character at the top of the park in celebration.”
Following on, Greenwich Peninsula will host Turning Worlds on August 30 and 31.
“We’ve moved our offices here, in the Design District and it’s a really invigorating place to work,” said Bradley.
“There are wonderful businesses and phenomenal architecture here, and there are great public spaces too.
“For Turning Worlds we’ve taken ideas of performance and engineering and it will feature a giant metal spiral, a device that enables a performer to walk on a wall and a show that involves exchanges between an acrobat and a giant robotic arm. Robopole, especially, is a phenomenal creation.”
heading to Woolwich
On September 4, it’s Woolwich’s turn with Fragments Of Us and Go Grandad Go set to both be performed twice in General Gordon Square.
“The former is a piece we’ve co-commissioned with Talawa from dance company Fubunation and director Sonia Hughes.
“It’s going to be very inspiring and thought-provoking, which will invite people into the lives of a cast of black performers who are creating and presenting the work.
“It’s a piece that will challenge traditional assumptions about black masculinity and reveal beautiful moments of poetry, and the brotherhood and connections between the people in the show.
“Then, Go Grandad Go is commission from fantastic dancer and choreographer Dani Harris-Walters. It’s hip-hop – very family-friendly and feel-good – and takes audiences into this world of relationships across the generations.
“It’s really fun and very relatable and engaging.”
tilting in Thamesmead
Completing this year’s series of spectacles in south-east London will be The Weight Of Water, a giant tipping staircase of a stage where six performers will dance while battling gravity as their floating performance space.
“It’s from a Dutch company, who have created a wonderful piece of ingenious engineering, that involves a floating stage which can actually tip and change position in response to the movements of the acrobats and dancers on it.
“The show is very much urging us to be aware of the climate crisis and the impact of political indecision.
“There’s live music, dance and circus. It’s nail-biting and an incredibly surprising show which has toured widely across Europe.
“We’re thrilled we’re able to bring it to Thamesmead on September 6 and 7.”
Also taking place that weekend will be Dancing City, an extensive programme of performances on the Saturday held in various locations for the second time in Stratford.
We’ll preview this event more extensively in due course.
key details: Greenwich + Docklands International Festival
Greenwich + Docklands International Festival 2025 is set to run from August 22 until September 6 at various locations in south-east and east London.
Full listings are available online.
- Above And Beyond, published by Unicorn, will be released on August 22 and is available to purchase at GDIF 2025 events and in selected bookstores
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