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London 2012 Festival

The climax of the Cultural Olympiad has something arty for everyone

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World Shakespeare Festival

Image courtesy Nik Milner / Shakespeare's Globe Image courtesy Nik Milner / Shakespeare's Globe

Over one million people will watch a Shakespeare play in London in 2012, including the Globe's staging of all 37 plays in 37 different languages

Read more about the World Shakespeare Festival

The Cultural Olympiad culminates with the London 2012 Festival, a sprawling collection of arts events that spans music, theatre, art and dance, with events to watch and take part in. There are big hitters like the World Shakespeare Festival and exhibitions from Damien Hirst, Lucian Freud and Rachel Whiteread, plus loads of community events and special programmes for kids and families. Here's a rundown of the main events.

Recommended London 2012 Festival shows

  • Doctor Dee

    Damon Albarn's 'Doctor Dee' opera

    Mon Jun 25 - Sat Jul 7, London Coliseum

    The versatile Blur and Gorillaz frontman's piece examines ritual and symbolism in Britain

  • Image courtesy Nik Milner / Shakespeare's Globe

    Globe to Globe

    Apr 23-Jun 9, Shakespeare's Globe

    Every Shakespeare play, each performed by a theatre company from a different country

  • Bamboo Blues

    Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch

    Jun 6-Jul 9 2012, Sadler's Wells & Barbican Centre

    Major season of work by the pioneering choreographer

London 2012 Festival shows

  • Cymbeline

    New Until Sat Jun 2, Barbican Centre

    Yukio Ninagawa brings his acclaimed Ninagawa Company back to the Barbican for a production of Sha...

  • The Comedy of Errors

    New Jun 1-Jul 6, Roundhouse

    Previously best known in the UK for directing rather heavier fare at the Young Vic, Palestinian t...

  • Twelfth Night

    New Jun 5-Jul 5, Roundhouse

    The RSC commences its contribution to the World Shakespeare Festival with the first part of its D...

  • The Tempest

    New Jun 9-Jul 5, Roundhouse

    No cycle of Shakespeare plays about shipwrecks would be complete without this late masterpiece. D...

  • The Rest is Silence

    New Jun 12-23, Riverside Studios

    Dreamthinkspeak offers up an elaborate visual and textual deconstruction of 'Hamlet', performed i...

  • In A Pickle

    Jun 19-23, Stratford Circus

    The ever-enchanting, multi-sensory children's theatre company Oily Cart chip in to the World Shak...

  • DruidMurphy

    New Jun 20-30, Hampstead Theatre

    Druid Theatre performs three of Tom Murphy's plays on Irish emigration – 'Famine', 'A Whistle i...

  • Ring Round the World

    Jun 21-Jul 20 2012, Various venues

    This epic children's opera unfolds in 220 scenes – one for every major country in the world –...

  • Crash of the Elysium

    New Jun 21-Sep 9

    Bold young souls are invited to step inside a crashed spaceship and confront the horrors within a...

  • Crow

    Jun 18-Jul 7

    In this impressive theatrical centrepiece to the London 2012 Festival, Handspring Puppet Company ...

  • West End Live

    Free Jun 23-24, Trafalgar Square

    Westminster City Council's gargantuan annual free festival has grown even bigger for the London 2...

  • Doctor Dee

    Recommended Mon Jun 25 - Sat Jul 7, London Coliseum

    Damon Albarn, the versatile Blur and Gorillaz frontman, follows up his opera 'Monkey: Journey to ...

    Doctor Dee

  • The Dark Side of Love

    New Jun 25-Jul 8, Roundhouse

    We don't know a whole lot about this Roundhouse/RSC/Lift co-production, but it sounds intriguing....

  • Les Troyens

    Recommended Mon Jun 25 - Wed Jul 11, Royal Opera House

    Berlioz's epic version of the Trojan war and its aftermath in a new production by David McVicar, ...

  • En Route

    New Jun 25-Jul 21, Theatre Royal Stratford East

    A huge critical success in fringe festivals across the world, this headphones-based journey-cum-l...

  • Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad

    New Jun 28-30, Riverside Studios

    Well this is intriguing: in this special commission for the World Shakespeare Festival, the Bard'...

  • Macbeth: Leila and Ben - A Bloody History

    New Jul 4-7, Riverside Studios

    This Tunisian take on 'Macbeth' by Lofti Achour and Anissa Daoud recasts the murderous Scot and h...

    Leïla and Ben – A Bloody History (Tunisian Macbeth)

  • Shake the Dust

    Jul 5-8, Southbank Centre

    A festival of slam poetry and spoken word, bringing together young people from around the country...

  • Big Dance 2012

    Jul 7-15, Various venues

    A week-long celebration of dance in all its forms, which this year is part of the London 2012 Fes...

  • Metamorphosis: Titian 2012

    Recommended Jul 14-20, Royal Opera House

    Part of the London 2012 Festival, a hugely ambitious and exciting collaboration between the Royal...

  • King Lear

    New Aug 31-Nov 3, Almeida Theatre

    In what will surely be one of the most heavily subscribed events in the World Shakespeare Festiva...

  • Bee Detective

    New Aug 31-Sep 2, Southbank Centre

    Young audiences are invited to step into the inner sanctum of a bee hive and help Sophie Bee save...

  • Boomba Down the Tyne

    Sep 1-9, Southbank Centre

    Music and dance from Brazil in a large-scale performance that brings together performers from nor...

  • Box of Frogs

    New Sep 1-9, Southbank Centre

    A poignant circus theatre show themed around depression and society's approach to the mentally il...

  • Candoco Unlimited

    Sep 1-9, Venue tbc

    As part of the London 2012 Festival, a large-scale performance for integrated dance company Cando...

  • Fusional Fragments

    Sep 1-9, Southbank Centre

    Set to an original score by cellist/composer Philip Sheppard and percussionist Evelyn Glennie, a ...

  • The Garden

    New Sep 1-9, Southbank Centre

    Disabled theatre company Graeae call in at the London 2012 Festival with an epic new piece about ...

  • Mad Gyms and Kitchens

    New Sep 1-9, Southbank Centre

    Performance artist Bobby Baker joins the London 2012 Festival with a show about wellbeing and rec...

  • Snails and Ketchup

    New Sep 1-9, Southbank Centre

    Using an ingenious aerial set, performance storyteller Ramesh Meyyappan performs a one man adapta...

  • Sue Austin: Creating the Spectacle

    Sep 1-9, Southbank Centre

    Sue Austin creates an unexpected spectacle involving a self-propelled underwater wheelchair and a...

  • The Ugly Spirit

    Sep 1-9, Southbank Centre

    Performance piece from Fittings Multimedia Arts that useas the story of conjoined Siamese twins C...



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