Thames Festival 2013

Friday 6th to Sunday 15th September 2013
South Bank, Southwark, Greater London, SE1 9PH, England MAP
FREE

Daily capacity: 250,000

Last updated: Thu 12th Sep 2013

Launched in 1997, The Mayor's Thames Festival has grown to become London's largest free open-air arts festival. This year the festival has expanded and will now happen over 10 days from Friday 6th until Sunday 15th September 2013, are the dates set aside for the festival which is open from noon until 10pm between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge.

Events

For the first time, the festival will extend beyond its usual concentrated weekend of riverside animations to a wider season of bespoke programming - creative new commissions, river events, and many activities to connect, involve, inspire and entice people down to the river and onto its waters.

Highlights include:

- the day-long, water-borne ships’ opera for the Thames on Saturday 14th - '1513: A Ships’ Opera' is a specially-composed performance for the Thames where the instruments are historic vessels modified to become musical instruments. The ships will resurrect the lost sounds of the river by playing steam whistles, bells, horns hooters, sirens and canon. The day-long performance, which starts at sea, culminates in a finale of sound, light and steam against the backdrop of Tower Bridge

- large-scale artworks on boards along the riverside walkways

- a film celebrating the people who live and work on the river shown on an outdoor riverside screen

- a special exhibition of more than 50 works of art inspired by the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant

- the river’s longest boat race

- the world’s slowest river race

- riverside choral performances by children and adults

- the Source to Sea River Relay will see a bottle of Thames water – filled at the source of the Thames – relayed by walkers, swimmers, rowers and sailors the entire length of the river

The challenging financial environment combined with escalating production costs have affected the festival in that some of the programme strands nurtured to date, notably the various Music and Dance Stages, the Night Carnival and the Fireworks Finale can no longer be afforded, and no longer fit within the festival's changing identity.

Line-up

Major artists include Richard Wilson (UK), Zatorski + Zatorski (UK), Layla Curtis (UK), Nikolaj Larsen (Denmark), Hew Locke (UK), and Doug Fishbone (USA)..