East Festival

East

East is a six-day festival, led by the Mayor of London, that celebrates the uniquely rich creative mix of East London. It takes place over six days from Thursday 4 March to Tuesday 9 March. 

This year's East programme features a wide range of events with world-class artists, exciting spaces, walks, tours and some quirky participation opportunities too. The East Festival explores themes relevant to the area, and this year's festival looks at Architecture, the Asian Sub Continent, Travel and Minimalism.

If any of this whets your whistle take a look at our highlight events below, and click on the calendar or browse East's Visit London listings using the search box to your right. You can also download a PDF of our Time Out Guide to East 2010 [2.6MB].

Asian Sub Continent

East Festival presents a sporting and cultural Commonwealth experience to tie in with Commonwealth Day on 8 March and the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, which kick off six months later. This theme celebrates the range of communities living in East London and Delhi and the fact that the East London area will host a global sporting event, the London Olympic Games, in 2012.

Travel

The festival's footprint continues to expand covering more and more parts of East London. This year East welcomes back popular travel-themed events such as Cycle East, Song East, Blue Badge walks, tours and cycle rides that relate to all our themes.

Architecture

With the London 2012 Olympics on the horizon, a huge amount of building work will take place in East London. This, coupled with the area's 1,000 year old history, means East Festival can give its own quirky take on architecture.

Minimalism

Bored of talking about the recession? East's minimalism theme explores the concept of economy and efficiency as it applies to architecture, design, culture and above all music.

East Highlights

Where Three Dreams Cross
Photos from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Ends 11 Apr
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot
Walk through a giant aviary at the Barbican. Until 23 May
Underwater Fancy Fair
Don't miss the underwater Fancy Fair at Rotherhithe. 12-13 Mar