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Seventy-five years ago the Southbank Centre – or the earliest iteration of it – roared into life with its inaugural event the Festival of Great Britain, a showcase for the best in British arts, science and design that was launched in an effort to cheer up a glum postwar London.
Though there are few around who remember it now, the Festival of Great Britain had eight million visitors during its months-long run and is still talked about to this day – there was some attempt to invoke its memory in the complicated semi-farrago that was Unboxed/Festival UK*22/‘the Festival of Brexit’ (if you can’t remember this don’t worry).
But now a true successor has been announced: next year the Southbank Centre’s 2026 75th anniversary programme will play explicit homage to the Festival of Great Britain, most notably in You Are Here (May 4 and 5 2026), a huge weekend-long celebration of British youth culture conceived and directed by the one and only Danny ‘London Olympics Opening Ceremony’ Boyle, plus Gareth Pugh, Carson McColl and Paulette Randall.
Thousands of performers will be involved in a celebration that promises to take over the entirety of the vast Thames side arts complex, with Boyle promising that there will be so much going on in every nook and cranny that every visitor will get a potentially totally different experience.
Throughout the rest of the season there will be an emphasis on bringing back big figures from throughout the Southbank’s history. The great Anish Kapoor will return to the Hayward Gallery for the first time in 28 years with a new exhibition of his work (Jun 16-Oct 18 2026). The legendary avant-garde composer Steve Reich’s 90th birthday will be marked during the Classical Opening Festival (Sep 22-27 2026). There will be a celebration of the life and work of Benjamin Zephaniah in next year’s Poetry International festival (Jul 10-12 2026). And Gary Lineker’s absurdly successful podcast company Goalhanger will stage a takeover (Sep 4-6 2026) that will for the first time bring together The Rest Is…History, The Rest Is…Politics and The Rest Is…Entertainment into one super podcast (or probably three separate podcasts live recorded at the same event, the press release is a bit vague).
As you’d imagine, there’s more even than that in an entire year of programming in the UK’s biggest and most famous arts centre – head to the Southbank Centre website to see the full line up for its 75th birthday so far.
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