Recently described in the Guardian as “one of the best free festivals in the UK” “whose annual contribution to the happiness of the people of London is unrivalled”, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival, affectionately known as GDIF, has been surprising and delighting audiences since 1996 with its annual programme of free outdoor arts.
Across 17 days each summer, GDIF welcomes audiences of more than 55,000 to a free outdoor programme of theatre, circus and dance, often featuring extraordinary staging in public spaces across Greenwich, Newham and Thamesmead. Shortlisted as ‘Producer of the Year’ by The Stage Awards 2025, in recent years GDIF has staged critically acclaimed performances on a moving double decker bus, a 3 tonne block of melting ice and on the façade of St Paul’s Cathedral
This year’s festival theme Above and Beyond is embodied by French parkour artists Lézards Bleus who open GDIF 2025 this evening at 6:45pm in Beresford Square, Woolwich, SE18 6AR, with a heart-stopping, roof hopping performance of virtuosic movement across landmark buildings in Woolwich. This world premiere has been specially commissioned to mark the 30th anniversary of the festival.
New music by Roma Yagnik and Greenwich-based Citizens of the World Choir will accompany this performance, a collaboration reflecting the creativity and stories of local people which have been at the heart of GDIF for the last thirty years. Tonight’s performance launches the 2025 programme of world-class free outdoor theatre, circus and dance which will present new work by 30 companies from across the world inspired by the theme: Above and Beyond. The festival will run until Saturday 6 September.
The festival opens tonight (Friday 22 August 6:45pm) with French company Lézards Bleus whose new production Above and Beyond encompasses this year’s festival theme quite literally, as eight extraordinary parkour performers give a heart-stopping performance across the landmark buildings and recently relandscaped public spaces of Woolwich.
This world premiere has been specially commissioned to mark the 30th anniversary of the festival with spectacular formation climbing combined with choreography and music inspired by Woolwich’s rich history of mutuality and shared endeavour. A central collaboration with the locally based Citizens of the World Choir reflects the creativity and stories of local people which have been at the heart of GDIF for the last 30 years.
Highlights of the festival to come include The Weight of Water (5–6 Sept, Thamesmead), where Dutch company Panama Pictures stages stunning physical theatre on a huge floating structure, and Turning Worlds (30–31 Aug, Greenwich Peninsula), which blends circus, robotics, and daring vertical performance. In Woolwich (4 Sept), Talawa (Play On, UK Tour) and Fubunation (The Ruins Series) premiere Fragments of Us, a powerful dance-theatre exploration of Black masculinity, directed by Sonia Hughes (What is the City but the People? with Jeremy Deller for MIF).
The hugely popular “festival within the festival” Dancing City returns to Stratford and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (6 Sept), featuring London premieres from groundbreaking disabled artists and an exciting partnership with New York’s Fire Island Dance Festival. Meanwhile, the much-loved Greenwich Fair returns to Greenwich Park (23 & 24 August)with playful street theatre, extraordinary puppetry, and the UK premiere of the breath-taking all-female high-wire show Epiphytes, set against London’s most iconic view.
Bradley Hemmings MBE, GDIF’s Artistic Director introduces this year’s festival: ‘This year’s theme Above and Beyond grows out of 30 years of delivering GDIF across Greenwich, East London and the City of London. In that time we’ve learned that there are no edges or boundaries in outdoor theatre and the usual distinctions between art and the everyday are often miraculously blurred. This year our “stage” stretches out in all directions – across parks, town centres, basketball courts, roofs and a water space, whilst we also invite audiences to look up, both physically and imaginatively. In the difficult, often fractious times we’re living through, the festival offers a moment in the midst of life’s challenges, to take a breath and experience something uplifting, free and accessible which everyone can enjoy.’
The limited-edition coffee table book Above and Beyond: 30 Years of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival’ written and edited by Fiona Hughes is published by Unicorn Publishing Group. The large format 160 page book celebrates three decades of the festival and acts a backstage pass to the most memorable GDIF moments alongside never seen before photos.
For information about the upcoming GDIF 2025 programme, please use this link
www.festival.org/gdif-2025
#GDIF2025 @GDIFestival
Above and Beyond: 30 Years of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Above-Beyond-Greenwich-Docklands-International/dp/1916846726
