Night of Festivals London

Bernie Spain Gardens

21-22 July 2018

Night of Festivals returned to London at a new home on the Southbank. The free 2-day outdoor event took place next to the iconic Oxo Tower, at Bernie Spain Gardens.

As part of the VOICES project, this year’s London event brought together artists, theatre makers and street performers from across Europe. In addition to the festival’s famous carnival creations, there was music, dance, quirky installations, living statues and live art.

Carnival interventions

Saturday and Sunday throughout the festival!

World-class carnival creations took over the South Bank and Bernie Spain Gardens. The world renowned Mandinga Arts brought their incredible creations back to London.

Welcome Project, Festival procession and workshops

An active, powerful and visible "WELCOME" to the new and vulnerable communities of Southwark, Lambeth and Waterloo.

Through a series of cross-community workshops and gatherings, participants, from refugee and non-refugee communities, designed and created banners and placards depicting positive messages of ‘welcome’. Working with acclaimed artist Gil Mualem-Doron (www.a4community.org), participants placards reflected his bold artwork – the ‘New Union Flag’, a re-imagining of the Union Jack that celebrates diversity and multicultural society.

On arrival at the festival the banners and placards were laid down and the community invited audioence members to join them in a symbolic sharing of food – a picnic!

On-site Workshops included Gil Mualem-Doron and making your own mini-New Union Flag.

Masca Theatre:

The Forgotten Crafts of Paris

Europe’s leading company in the art of the Living Statue brought to life characters of Parisian street traders, transporting you back in time to discover the forgotten crafts through mime, powerful mask and costumes and unrivaled theatricality.

Supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute

#NoFLondon 2018 also featured another exciting performance from Masca which celebrated the centenary year of Romania’s unification with an incredible roaming performance.

Parrabbola:

Wheeze – the Wind of Change

It’s party time, and Wheeze, the Vital Organ, is at the heart of the action. Audience members were invited to join in with the Engineer and his friends. But then came The Generalissima and her evil henchmen. Who were out to spoil the fun and are doing everything they could to stop everyone speaking and singing as they please.

Find out more about VOICES here.

Behind The Wall

Commissioned by Teatrul National Radu Stanca.

An artist created visual artwork live on a large canvas, with accompanying performance by two dancers and live DJ.

BORDERLINE

Borderline is commissioned by Altonale GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)

This site-specific dance performance was about personal boundaries: Five artists faced their inner and outer limits. With dance, song and music they challenged and explored limits then overcame that which limits us all.