The Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF) has revealed the first wave of its 2026 programme, set to take place from 21 August to 6 September across multiple London boroughs. The free outdoor event will feature more than 25 companies presenting theatre, dance, circus, and installations around the theme “We Move.”

GDIF 2026 will unfold across Greenwich, Newham, Thamesmead, Stratford and, for the first time, Romford and Barking. The festival’s programme reflects London’s resilience and community spirit, with artistic director Bradley Hemmings describing it as a celebration of “free outdoor art, joy, wonder and participation.”

The line-up includes three world premieres, five UK premieres, and ten London premieres, following the festival’s 30th anniversary in 2025. It opens on 21 August with 360, a large-scale dance work by French choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche, staged in General Gordon Square, Woolwich. The production transforms the space into a circular dance arena featuring choreography, electronic music and immersive elements.

International highlights include the UK premiere of Efectos Especiales by Argentinian artists Luciana Acuña and Alejo Moguillansky at Greenwich Peninsula on 29 and 30 August. This work turns an everyday street into a live film set, blending cinema, dance and theatrical effects like wind, snow and thunder.

A new installation programme, Nature Speaks, arrives in Thamesmead on 4 and 5 September. It pairs Catalan company El Conde de Torrefiel’s I Have No Name, a text-based storytelling piece giving voice to the natural world, with Canopy, an immersive sound installation by Lorna Rees Company created with over 500 contributors.

Romford will join GDIF for the first time with Meet Me By The Fountain by Variable Matter on 28 and 29 August. This new work combines projection, sound and storytelling to revisit the history of Romford’s Liberty fountain, alongside daytime interventions inspired by local myths and legends.

The Bank Holiday weekend in Woolwich features several London premieres, including Olúwatósin Omotosho’s The Aunties: House of Masks, which explores cultural identity and family dynamics through hip hop and Afro dance. Kobby Taylor’s The Torch fuses Afrobeat, hip hop and live storytelling inspired by musician Ebo Taylor’s legacy.

Geraldine Pilgrim Performance Company will present Chair! in Newham on 3 and 4 September. Created with local participants, the piece uses a landscape of chairs and everyday objects to reflect on public space and accessibility.

Family-friendly events return with Greenwich Fair in Greenwich Park on 22 and 23 August. The programme features Underclouds Cie’s Inertie with two performers interacting with a rotating circular structure, Fabla Collective’s Do Birds Dream of Flying? performed on a moving ladder, and Symoné’s A Place Between Mass and Echoes combining circus, dance and roller-skating.

Dancing City, GDIF’s annual outdoor dance showcase, takes place on 5 September across Stratford, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and East Bank. Highlights include the UK premiere of Benched by Denmark’s Uppercut Dance Theater, which uses three benches as a focal point for a fusion of breakdance, capoeira and contemporary dance, alongside Chris Fonseca’s Man Down, a new work examining masculinity through beatboxing, hip hop and visual vernacular.

The festival concludes on 6 September with (In)Visible Dancing, a large-scale community dance event by Luca Silvestrini’s Protein. After a week of pop-up performances in Woolwich town centre, the event culminates in a mass movement finale involving local dance groups.

Further programming, including an event in Barking Town Centre, is yet to be announced.