Greenwich + Docklands International Festival announces initial line-up

Exclusive: Greenwich+Docklands International Festival has announced the first wave of programming for its 2026 edition, which will take place from 21 August to 6 September across Greenwich, Newham, Thamesmead, Stratford and, for the first time, Romford and Barking.

The free outdoor arts festival will present more than 25 companies from the UK and around the world in a programme of theatre, dance, circus and installations inspired by the theme “We Move”. The 2026 line-up includes three world premieres, five UK premieres and 10 London premieres, building on the festival’s 30th anniversary celebrations in 2025.

Artistic director Bradley Hemmings said the theme reflects London’s resilience and sense of community, describing the programme as a celebration of “free outdoor art, joy, wonder and participation”.

The festival opens on 21 August with 360, a large-scale dance work by French choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche. Staged in General Gordon Square, Woolwich, the production transforms the space into a circular dance arena combining choreography, electronic music and immersive staging.

Among the international highlights is the UK premiere of Efectos Especiales by Argentinian artists Luciana Acuña and Alejo Moguillansky. Presented at Greenwich Peninsula on 29 and 30 August, the production turns an everyday street into a live film set, blending cinema, dance and theatrical effects including wind, snow and thunder.

A new installation programme, Nature Speaks, arrives in Thamesmead on 4 and 5 September. The double bill pairs Catalan company El Conde de Torrefiel’s I Have No Name, which gives voice to the natural world through text-based storytelling, with Canopy, an immersive sound installation by Lorna Rees Company developed with more than 500 contributors.

Romford joins the festival for the first time with Meet Me By The Fountain, a new work by Variable Matter running on 28 and 29 August. Combining projection, sound and storytelling, the production revisits the history of the town’s Liberty fountain and will be accompanied by daytime interventions inspired by local myths and legends.

Several new commissions will receive London premieres over the Bank Holiday weekend in Woolwich. Olúwatósin Omotosho’s The Aunties: House of Masks draws on hip hop and Afro dance to explore cultural identity and family dynamics, while Kobby Taylor’s The Torch combines Afrobeat, hip hop and live storytelling in a work inspired by the legacy of musician Ebo Taylor.

Elsewhere, Geraldine Pilgrim Performance Company will present Chair! in Newham on 3 and 4 September. Created with local participants, the visual theatre piece reflects on public space and accessibility through a landscape of chairs and everyday objects.

The festival’s family strand, Greenwich Fair, returns to Greenwich Park on 22 and 23 August. The programme includes Underclouds Cie’s Inertie, in which two performers interact with a rotating circular structure, Fabla Collective’s Do Birds Dream of Flying?, performed on a moving ladder, and Symoné’s A Place Between Mass and Echoes, which combines circus, dance and roller-skating.

Dancing City, GDIF’s annual outdoor dance showcase, takes place on 5 September across Stratford, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and East Bank. Highlights include the UK premiere of Benched by Denmark’s Uppercut Dance Theater, which uses three benches as the centrepiece for a work incorporating breakdance, capoeira and contemporary dance, and Chris Fonseca’s Man Down, a newly commissioned piece examining masculinity through visual vernacular, beatboxing and hip hop.

The festival concludes on 6 September with (In)Visible Dancing, a large-scale community dance event created by Luca Silvestrini’s Protein. Following a week of pop-up performances in Woolwich town centre, the project culminates in a mass movement finale involving local dance groups.

Further programming for GDIF 2026, including an event in Barking Town Centre, is due to be announced.