Southbank Centre unveils first names for Unlimited festival

The Southbank Centre has announced the first names for its Unlimited festival celebrating the work of disabled artists.

Organised in partnership with the Unlimited arts commissioning body, the biennial festival features a diverse lineup of performance, literature, music, visual art and more. It runs from 4 to 8 September, with some work available online.

This year features UK and London firsts from well-known established names, alongside new commissions by artists who identify as disabled, D/deaf, neurodivergent and those experiencing chronic illness and mental health conditions. The festival will close the Southbank Centre’s summer programme, You Belong Here, which explores themes of belonging, identity and community.

Opening the festival, poet Raymond Antrobus shares his new collection Signs, Music, exploring masculinity, fatherhood, and love. Other highlights include: the London premiere of Stopgap’s Lived Fiction; the UK premiere of Precarious Moves from Vienna-based artist and academic Michael Turinsky; and Disco Neurotico making its London debut in the Queen Elizabeth Foyer with a “more inclusive clubbing experience”.

Touretteshero, led by writer and activist Jess Thom and Matthew Poutney, present the London premiere of Burnt Out In Biscuit Land which blends film, live performance, and conversation to create a “funny, surreal and moving show on resistance and joy in the face of a crisis” (7 to 8 September). Meanwhile others appearing include BSL art guide Chisato Minamimura, performer Midgitte Bardot, Deaf Rave, comedians Simon Minty and Steve Best, and musician Elle Chante.

Southbank Centre artistic director Mark Ball said: “As an estimated 23 per cent of the UK population are disabled, our long-running Unlimited festival underlines our commitment to being the nation’s most culturally democratic and expressive space for artists and audiences.”