Redbridge Outdoor Arts • Vision RCL

Redbridge Outdoor Arts is a partner in Without Walls, a consortium of festivals and arts organisations bringing fantastic outdoor arts to people in towns and cities across England. Find out more on www.withoutwalls.uk.com.

Join us for a FREE theatre, dance, music and performance on a high street near you.

A programme for all ages to enjoy and everyone in the community is welcome!

Summer Programme 2024

Redbridge Outdoor Arts presents a summer of arts and culture in Ilford Town Centre and Ken Aston Square, Barkingside High Street.

Each month from June to October, Ilford and Barkingside will become animated with interactive installations, theatre, performance, circus, dance, acrobats, puppetry, singing, storytelling and technology. There will be themes exploring environment and sustainability, food and healthy eating, friendship and growing up, strength and identity.

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September and October

Fussy Foodies: Battle of the Pans

Saturday 21 September
Ken Aston Square, Barkingside
11 am and 2 pm

CANCELLED – Sunday 22 September
Ilford Town Centre
12.30 pm and 3 pm

An interactive game show using food history, music, roots, and culture by Just More Productions.

It’s a celebration of food, music roots, and culture, a kitchen party where the audience joins in on the fun! But don’t get too comfortable, you’ll have your part to play! The audience/ the contestants will take part in the cooking and the games with number one foodie ‘Messy Mama T’ there to quiz you on your foodie knowledge – with a chance to win the grand prize!

Find out more about the event here

Island Movements by Black British Ballet

Saturday 12 October
Ken Aston Square, Barkingside
11 am and 2 pm

Sunday 13 October
Ilford Town Centre
12.30 pm and 3 pm

Island Movements is a short ballet that tells the story of Windrush and explores the impact of this generation’s experiences on their families, communities and society.

Beginning with a young Caribbean woman who volunteers to support the war effort in WW2 Britain, this moving tale follows her and her family through their life in the UK to the current day.

Find out more about the event here

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE! NO NEED TO BOOK, JUST TURN UP!

Please re-visit this page for more information regarding our future performances.

Come and join us for Redbridge Outdoor Arts

Ken Aston Square, outside Fullwell Cross Library & Leisure Centre, Barkingside, IG6 2EA
Outside Redbridge Town Hall, Ilford Town Centre, High Road, IG1 1LL

Redbridge Outdoor Arts Launch

Out of the Deep Blue

Saturday 22 June
Ken Aston Square, Barkingside 11am and 2pm

Sunday 23 June
Ilford Town Centre 12.30pm and 3pm

Out of the Deep Blue is an outdoor physical theatre performance featuring a 13-foot tall Puppet operated by 5 puppeteers and a female dancer. The performance tells the magical story of Eko, a sea giant who rises from the deep ocean and who encounters, on the shore, a courageous little girl called Violet.

Find out more about the event here

Fabula Festival – Families Take Over Day

A la Puppet Carte by Thingumajig Theatre

Saturday 6 July
Outside of Redbridge Central Library 11am, 12.30pm and 3pm

Join us for some pop-up puppetry storytelling. On the menu is a pair of pop up puppet stages built onto the back of electric tricycles. Each stage is a puppet show full of surprises, fun and a heart-warming story of friendship and a sense of home.

Find out more about Fabula Festival

performer holds puppet of three baby birds in a nest

Celebrating South Asia!

Join Redbridge Outdoor Arts as we celebrate our local communities through dance, music, costume and performance as part of Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure’s South Asian Heritage Month celebrations.

View event schedule

TEA BREAK

Saturday 20 July
Ken Aston Square, Barkingside 11am, 1pm and 3pm

Sunday 21 July
Ilford Town Centre 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm

TEABREAK serves as a portal into an experiential world of tea drinking and performance. Free, freshly brewed tea is served from Trigger’s Tuk Tuk, offering the opportunity to sit, enjoy a cup of tea and companionship and subtly be taken through the history of tea.

Find out more about the performance here

Choogh Choogh

Saturday 20 July
Ken Aston Square, Barkingside 12pm and 2pm

Sunday 21 July
Ilford Town Centre 12.30pm and 2.30pm

Choogh Choogh inspired by the joy of travelling through India on a train. The journey starts with audience getting a special choogh choogh ticket.

Scarves become steam, railway tracks, train windows, camels, and so much more. A journey where the audience experience the world from inside the train, through the train and outside it. Along the way the tickets get checked and imaginary food is sold and shared.

This show is an exploration of just how much we can see and imagine, together, as the train chooghs chooghs on.

Find out more about the performance here

three performers in traditional south asian clothing interact enthusiastically

Additional information

Arts and Crafts

As part of the Ken Aston Square programme, children and their families can take part in arts and crafts activities with Barkingside Art Club (BAC), older children and young people can join the Creative Ambassadors zone for a more chilled approach to creating art, there will also be an opportunity for everyone to complete the Discover in a day Arts Award accreditation.

Access and Inclusion

Redbridge Outdoor Arts is developing the access and inclusion offer across the programme. Through offering pre-show relaxed tours, distributing easy-reads, relaxed intro videos and photo’s to enable familiarisation for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), as well as neurodiverse adults.

Contact the Culture Team

Our Partners

Redbridge Outdoor Arts is a partner in Without Walls, working with festivals and artists and bringing fantastic outdoor arts to people in towns and cities across the UK.

Visit the Without Walls website

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

Summer Programme 2024