An inspiring programme of culture, arts, science, literature, performance, discussion, debate and family events.
The 2025 Bloomsbury Festival returns from Friday 17th – Sunday 19th October, across Bloomsbury and Camden’s streets, parks, museums and galleries in an annual celebration of local community and culture. The weekend festival for 2025 has been planned ahead of the 20 year anniversary in 2026, which will be marked by a month-long celebration and will be the biggest Bloomsbury Festival to date!
The theme for this year’s festival is, The Paths We Tread, inspired by the festival’s heritage. This has provided a very broad range of interpretations for the wider programme where artists are following their own personal and cultural ‘paths’ and creative exploration. The 2025 programme focuses on Bloomsbury’s New Wave talent, an annual programme which showcases artists, musicians and theatre-makers emerging into their professional careers.
The festival will open with a free launch event, Songs And Ballads Singing Showcase (16th October), led by singers from Bloomsbury and beyond.
The New Wave programme of theatre includes:
- Up In The Mango Trees (17th – 18th October)
- Cancelling Patji (17th – 18th October)
- See It. Say It. Sorted. The Musical! (17th – 18th October)
- 8-Bit Dream (19th October)
- Facility 111: A Government Experiment (19th October)
In dance, An Evening With Okan-Maya & Toussaint (18th October) at The Place, artists and choreographers Ella Mesma and Akeim Toussaint Buck present a vibrant evening inspired by their new dance theatre show.
A programme of nine New Wave music concerts platforming emerging music talent includes Tuning Dimensions (18th October); J.A.M. String Collective (19th October) and Dùthchas (19th October).
Exhibitions running over the weekend include an outdoor exhibition by Michael Craig-Martin, the Russell Square Sculpture Commission; New Wave prize-winning artist Beth McAlester presenting artwork featuring life in Northern Ireland for the ‘ceasefire’ babies who have grown up since the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. Additionally, artist Dryden Goodwin’s Quicken explores drawing as a means to re-animate the presence of individuals from St Giles’ notorious past, realised as a series of etched metal plates installed among the throng of contemporary St Giles streets and The Streets Of Bloomsbury and St Giles, features contemporary artistic responses to historic artworks and street songs, and depicting new interpretations of local life as lived in past centuries in the area.
Family events include Holborn Library’s Meet Maisie Chan (18th October), author of award winning children’s books such as Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths; and Crossing The Alps With An Elephant: The Paths Of William Brockedon (18th October) with art and science activites around the amazing life of William Brockedon: explorer, artist and pharmacological inventor.
Events are free and ticketed with prices between £3 and £25.