Thames Festival Trust

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← Back | Last updated on 6 Nov 2024

About Organisation

Thames Festival was launched in September 1997 with a record-breaking high wire walk across the River Thames. The festival and associated activities is operated by Thames Festival Trust, an independent charity.

From 1998 to 2012, the festival was focused on the area between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge. It took place over the second weekend in September, and featured a rich programme of street arts, participatory dance sessions, art workshops for families, a riverside crafts and food market, a feast on Southwark Bridge and a spectacular night carnival with a mid-river fireworks finale.

In 2000, the festival team helped deliver London’s Millennium Celebrations, and in 2012, they took a major role in the design and delivery of The Thames Diamond Jubilee River Pageant.

In 2013, Thames Festival was relaunched as Totally Thames, a month-long season of river and river-related events along the whole 43 miles of the River Thames riverfront in London, from Hampton Court Bridge in the west to the Dartford Crossing in the east.

This new format came with a more diverse programme of events that often featured a major art installation for the River Thames as its centrepiece. Totally Thames strives to be ‘the cultural voice of the river’ and includes many river and river-related events produced independently and marketed as part of the festival.

Our Vision

Our vision is of unique art, cultural events and active adventures in healthy river environments. Accessible to all, enjoyed by all.

Thames Festival Trust: Our Mission

To increase the appreciation of rivers and their importance to us all. To create and promote river and river-related art, education and heritage events as well as sporting, cultural, community and environmental activities. Thames Festival Trust has a particular interest in the River Thames and its tributaries.

Thames Festival Trust: Our Objectives

  • We take a unique multidisciplinary approach, creating work that spans art forms to develop and diversify engagement.
  • We work with children and young people in London, across the UK and world to connect them to their rivers, through creative arts-based education.
  • We curate, commission and collaborate on an annual celebration of the River Thames. Delivering a programme for all to discover, uncover and explore arts, culture and active events.
  • We work globally with international artists to present great art in London, embed international exchange and dialogue, collaborating with international partners to champion and highlight the unique space rivers occupy across the world.
  • We work with new and emerging diverse artists to offer new and often unheard voices on the river.
  • We create unique opportunities to discover and learn about the richness of the tidal Thames through archaeology and heritage programmes.
  • We create unique river related education resources.


Thames Festival Trust
020 7928 8998
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7 Bell Yard
London, WC2A 2JR
thamesfestivaltrust.org/
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