Thames Festival 2010

Launched in 1997, The Mayor's Thames Festival has grown to become London's largest free open-air arts festival.

Events

Saturday, 11th and Sunday, 12th September, are the dates set aside for the festival which is open from noon until 10pm between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge. Many Thames Festival activities are based on public participation. The festival commissions new work, and transforms unusual spaces on and around the River Thames with a mixture of street arts, performance, carnival, pyrotechnics, illuminations, art installations, exhibitions, river events, massed choirs, circus, music and dance, food and feasting. The finale is a magical illuminated Night Procession that winds along the north and south banks of the Thames, followed by a fireworks display fired from the centre of the river itself.

Line-up

Festival Freedom Stage

Saturday: Poppy & Friends, Sam Sallon, Hannah Peel, Tawiah, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Krystle Warren, The Invisible, Ben Westbeech, Saravah Soul
Sunday: Kersha Bailey, Delta Maid, Lail Arad, Son of Dave, Ty, CW Stoneking, Kitty Daisy and Lewis, Speech Debelle, Ska Cubano

Lady Luck - Jive Stage

Saturday: London Swing Dance Society, The Bombshellettes, DJ Tim Jumpin' Jive, La Belle Vie Band, DJ Lady Kamikaze, Dom James and his Dixie Ticklers, DJ El Nino, The Strumpettes, The Baron and Missy's Misadventures, Number Nine, DJ El Nino.
Sunday: Maddy's Jiving School, The Jive Aces, DJ Count Sizzle,The Mule Skinners, DJ Lady Kamikaze, Sugar Ray Ford, Zephyrs of Swing, DJ Lady Kamikaze, The Strumpettes, The Baron and Missy's Misadventures, James Hunter, and DJ El Nino.

The Magpie's Nest

Presents A Field Trip in Folk, the line-up of acts on Saturday TBA.

Swamp Rock Stage

Presents A Musical Gumbo on Sunday acts TBA.

The event will also host a lot of activities throughout the weekend including Feast on the Bridge on Saturday. Sunday's Sing For Water with a choir of 1,000 voices lifted in song in support of WaterAid, an exhibition featuring Archaos, aa Festival Market and more.

Night Procession

Every year key London roads are closed to traffic for the Thames Festival's spectacular finale event, the Night Procession, with over 2,000 musicians, dancers, performers and masqueraders come from across the country and the world with lanterns, illuminated costumes and fantastic structures. The Procession takes place on Sunday 12th September, starting at 7.15pm on Victoria Embankment, travels east crossing the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge, and finishes behind the Royal National Theatre and Southbank Centre.

The event's river and water-focused activities aim to inspire and excite and its extensive education programme involving some 300 schools hopes to increase interest in and appreciation of the river and its environment.

More info

For more information (as available), see the official website.

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