Around Town

It’s time to set your compass for all points south east. Many of London’s ‘villages’ break out the bunting and put on a festival of some description during the summer months, but few offer anything to match the scale of the  Greenwich and Docklands International Festival, which has established a reputation as a major commissioner and presenter of large-scale outdoor works. This year, 17 events will take place over four days, at venues including the Old Royal Naval College, Canary Wharf, the O2 and Woolwich.

‘Fanfare’ (Thursday, 7pm) in Beresford Square, SE18, is a piece of French street theatre from La Vie en Rose featuring a giant caterpillar that will swallow its audience and encourage them to become a part of the show. ‘Run!’ (Friday, 9.45pm) at the National Maritime Museum is a new commission that relates the history of running through choreography, projections and inventive machinery. In ‘Full Circle’ (Saturday at 9.45pm), Wennington Green, Mile End Park, pyrotechnicians The World Famous and Slovenian musicians Terrafolk employ fire and fireworks to explore the power of nature. And in ‘Bend It…’, a 15-minute performance on the riverside at Canary Wharf, E14 (Thursday & Friday 1pm & 6pm, Saturday 2pm & 5pm, Sunday 2.45pm, 4.15pm), aerialists and dancers blend football and south-east Asian dance.

Coinciding with the festival is the launch of two other attractions. Opening on Friday at the National Maritime Museum’s Queen’s House is ‘Turmoil and Tranquillity’, an exhibition showcasing the museum’s collection of Dutch and Flemish masterpieces that traces the emerging genre of maritime art in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. The paintings range from  dramatic seascapes and depictions of storms and shipwrecks (often used allegorically with ships as symbols for the soul, as in Adam Willaerts’s ‘Jonah and the Whale’) to tranquil depictions of coastal waters by the principal artists of the period, among them Jan Porcellis, Simon de Vlieger, Ludolf Backhuysen and Jacob van Ruisdael.

The opening of the Greenwich Observation Wheel has been delayed but the plan is for it to be a temporary attraction in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College that offers compensation for the current closure of the Cutty Sark, the area’s much-loved tea clipper, which is undergoing restoration. At 55 metres, the  wheel’s taller than Nelson’s Column, although well short of the London Eye’s 135m. On a clear day it will offer visitors a new perspective on the capital, providing panoramic views over Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, the Lea Valley and Hampstead Heath, as well as a chance to get a bird’s-eye view of maritime Greenwich. Forty gondolas (including one with disabled access) carry up to six people each and take between 12 and 15 minutes to complete a rotation. Greenwich and Docklands International Festival runs Thurs Jun 19-Sun Jun 22. All events free (020 8305 1818/www.festival.org).

‘Turmoil and Tranquillity’ is at the National Maritime Museum (www.nmm.ac.uk) from Fri-Jan 11. Adm free.
Greenwich Observation Wheel runs from Sat-Sept 28. £7, under-16s £4.50; private gondola (max 6 adults + 2 children) £30.