Greenwich Fair Revived For Greenwich And Docklands International Festival

Lindsey
By Lindsey Last edited 153 months ago
Greenwich Fair Revived For Greenwich And Docklands International Festival

The amazing free arts festival returns on 24 June, offering outdoor street theatre, dance and extraordinary creative experiences from Greenwich to Woolwich and Canary Wharf to Mile End.

The feather in its hat this year is a revival of the Dickens favourite, Greenwich Fair. An Easter fixture until those boring old Victorians closed it down for being too unruly, anything went at Greenwich Fair. The 2011 revival will give old traditions a new twist with a life-sized Punch and Judy, melodramas, menageries, hill rolling, an outdoor aquarium and plenty of sideshow action and activities in Greenwich Park and in venues around SE10. Everything is free but some performances need to be booked so have a gander at the programme.

Dancing City always enthrals putting inventive dance into unexpected spaces across Canary Wharf. On Saturday 2 July English National Ballet perform a Hans Van Manen duet on Wren Landing, Axial Dance bring their Lambretta to Canary Riverside, the dancing JCB returns to Jubilee Plaza, watch out for a wandering company of red shoed suits, find Deaf Men Dancing with sign language and live painting to prove that just because you wear a suit, doesn't mean you can't be joyful and there's a dance with a washing machine in Westferry Circus.

And if you work in Docklands, take time out to sit beneath a transparent stage and watch an 8 minute dance performance framed by the towers of Cabot Square between 30 June - 2 July.

Finally, don't miss the spectacular closer to the festival; a procession of life-sized crimson giraffes from General Gordon Square to the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich from 9pm on Saturday 2 July.

Greenwich and Docklands International Festival runs from 24 June - 6 July. Greenwich Fair takes place 24-26 June. Dancing City takes over Canary Wharf on Saturday 2 July. This day by day schedule might be helpful.

Covering Olympic host boroughs as it does, GDIF falls under the unweidly umbrella of CREATE11.

Image: Strange Fruit and Graeae perform together at GDIF 09 by MykReeve via the Londonist Flickrpool

Last Updated 15 June 2011