GDIF is back this Summer with FREE outdoor theatre, dance, circus and installations!
Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF), London’s award-winning annual outdoor festival of FREE theatre and performing arts, taking place from 23 August to 8 September 2024 has revealed its full programme and a spectacular opening night event.
A total of 20 Premieres, including two World and one European premiere, UK and international artists from Australia, South Africa, France, Spain, The Netherlands and Quebec are part of this year’s 50+ events inspired by the festival theme of ALL CHANGE. Packed with surprising and unusual events often featuring innovative staging. All taking place in public spaces across the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Newham and the City of London.
Five events have already been announced including BODIES OF WATER: TOUCH: PATOIS: PRAM PEOPLE and the European premiere of THAW an 8-hour aerial performance on a suspended 2.5 tonne block of ice! Thaw is a jaw-dropping creation by Australian physical theatre company Legs On The Wall in response to the devastating bushfires of 2019/20.
Further Highlights Include
- GDIF 2024 opens with Silence! from street theatre giants Les Commandos Perçu with a heart-thumping opening night fusion of percussion and pyrotechnics in Woolwich; more large-scale productions include Lézards Bleus Life Lines, an awe-inspiring Parkour performance staged across the multi-storey architecture of Greenwich Peninsula.
- Theatre companies, Good Chance and Gecko premiere From Here On, a physical theatre performance about children’s right to safe passage, performed by 40 young people
- More theatre world premieres include Dante or Die’s A Ballad of Thamesmead in Thamesmead and Bodies of Water performed on the shore of the Thames in Greenwich.
- Patois, GDIF’s flagship 2024 commission, will perform in four locations during the festival in Greenwich, Woolwich, Abbey Wood and Stratford.
- Pram People is a delightful ‘buggietastic’ child-friendly show at Stratford Park
- Touch combines the theatrical use of a flight of stairs and gravity-defying trampoline choreography, by renowned French dancer and choreographer Yoann Bourgeois
- Embracing change, the 29th GDIF adopts a new shape as it takes over new sites in the public spaces in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Newham and the City of London.
- GDIF’s annual outdoor dance celebration, Dancing City, is presented in Stratford’s East Bank with a world-class line-up that includes Emmy-winner Le Patin Libre, Jeanefer Jean- Charles, The 100 Hands, Stopgap Dance Company, Stacked Wonky and Yoann Bourgeois and a new work from Mark Smith celebrating this year’s Paralympic Games.
- GDIF 2024 offers more than ever before for children and families, including Parkworks, a new two-day bank holiday programme in Stratford Park featuring sculptural games, dance, theatre, circus and opportunities to take part.
“One of the best free festivals in the UK. GDIF’s annual contribution to the happiness of the people of London is unrivalled” The Guardian
Further information about the full programme can be found here: festival.org/GDIF-2024