Thames Festival Trust | Seed Funders @ Totally Thames festival 2026

Where the River Holds Us 2026 | Photo: Dele Oluwayomi

Helen Epega

Helen Epega (The Venus Bushfires) is a British-Nigerian composer, writer, performer and synaesthete whose multidisciplinary practice spans opera, storytelling, visual art and creative technology. She's best known for Song Queen: A Pidgin Opera, the world's first opera in Pidgin English, and Of Earth and Quill.

Her work explores cultural memory, belonging, accessibility, and our relationship with place and environment, creating new ways for audiences to experience stories, music and culture. She is the inventor of HiQuu®, a patent-pending multisensory platform, and Access as Creative Core™, an accessibility-led creative methodology. Her work has been featured by BBC, CNN and The Guardian.

Seed Funders 2026 | Aftertide | Seb Harcombe

Seb Harcome

Seb Harcombe is an artist, writer and theatre-maker from the Rhondda Valley in South Wales. After initial training as a musician and actor, he worked as a performer, before becoming a theatre and opera director. In recent years his practice has evolved towards creating poetic, site-responsive works that emerge from encounters with people and place, bringing together testimony, history, myth and music. Developed following his own near-death experience, Aftertide is the latest expression of this evolving practice.

Kick the Door Down

Co-founders of Kick The Door Down, an ACE-funded annual 3-month new writing development programme in partnership with Riverside Studios & The Pleasance Theatre, Claudia Vyvyan and Oli Fyne create paid opportunities for emerging artists to develop their craft and new writing with tailored industry feedback. Our third annual programme will take place from October to December 2026.

Claudia Vyvyan is a London-based Producer & Writer committed to amplifying marginalised voices, promoting revolutionary narratives, & community-building in the arts. Claudia also works with Club Soda Croydon (Project Manager, Artists & Events; 'Change The Scene' National Tour) & Thames Festival Trust (Marketing & Production). Claudia is now producer for Mandi Riggi’s new play ‘Mercy’(winner of the Hollywood Fringe Diversity Award). As part of a programme of R&D events for ‘Mercy’, a short play festival called ‘Cradle: Stories of Iran, Exile & Belonging’ will debut at Riverside Studios on 22nd November 2026.

Oli Fyne is a Scottish Actor, Writer, Director & Producer. Currently filming _Sutherland_ for World Productions (makers of Vigil, Bodyguard, Line of Duty) next appearing in _Bookish_ Season 2 (by Mark Gatiss). Previously title role of feature film _Stella_ (Sky & STV). _Scotsman Award_ Runner-Up Director & Director’s apprentice to Alice Seabright on _Amadeus_ (Sky). Winner of Best Drama at the Edinburgh Festival 2025.

Seed Funders 2026 | Kick The Door Down

Seed Funders 2026 | River Recital | Naro Horn

Narotam Horn

Narotam Horn is a composer, pianist and event coordinator working across contemporary classical, jazz and experimental sound practices. His debut album, No Mud, No Lotus, was released in April 2026 via iXi Records, with support from PRS Foundation. Recent projects include Remembering with Arpita Singh at the Serpentine Gallery, LOAM with Ninon Ardisson for the British Textile Biennial 2025, and Piano Day 2024 at the National Gallery. In 2026, his string quartet was premiered at the New World Center with members of the New World Symphony and vocalist Visvambhar Sheth.

Narotam is also the founder and curator of the River Recital series, a concert platform bringing exceptional and eclectic programmes to London's floating venues. Over the past decade, the series has received support from Totally Thames festival, Tower Bridge Yacht and Boat Company, We Are Float PR, Arts Council England and the SP Lohia Foundation, fostering collaborations with artists including Alice Zawadzki, Abel Selaocoe and Varijashree Venugopal.

ONE DAY THIS KID

ONE DAY THIS KID is a performance collective comprised of producer-directors Ellie Kendrick (Game of Thrones; Misfits), Alex Lawther (Black Mirror; The End of the Fucking World) and Hugh Wyld (DOG, Camden People's Theatre). Their first project, The Waterfront Journals, stages monologues by artist and activist David Wojnarowicz in a site-specific promenade performance at Thames Barrier Park. Performed by actors, the piece weaves together stories of cruising, love, loss and resilience at the water's edge. Supported by Thames Festival Trust's Seed Funder programme, ODTK will also commission new responses from LGBTQIA+ Londoners, continuing an intergenerational conversation about queerness, fluidity and community along the Thames.

Seed Funders 2026 | The Waterfront Journals

Support our Work

Without the support of funders, partners and people like yourself, we wouldn’t be able to deliver our diverse programme of projects and events along the Thames and across the world.

Find out how you can get involved

More from our artistic programme

MSCTY x Thames

A sonic journey along the River Thames

Discover this project

Red Umbrella

The Korean dance group The Move performed Red Umbrella with the help of local people as part of Kingston Korean Harvest Festival in 2019.

Discover this project

Reflections

This event took place at dusk on Saturday 24 September 2022, the Reflections flotilla was a tribute by the river community marking the passing of Her Majesty the Queen and the accession of King Charles III. As the boats glided peacefully by, it allowed those viewing to remember the past and think positively about the future. The event aimed to raise up to £20,000 for the RNLI, supporting the construction of a new lifeboat station at Waterloo Bridge.The…

Seed Funder Programme

Our Seed Funder Programme provides early to mid-career artists with support to shape, develop and deliver their River Thames, waterway, or sustainability themed project.

Seed Funder Programme

Sing for Water

A riverside choral event that takes place as part of Totally Thames festival, bringing together choirs from across the UK to raise money and awareness for WaterAid.

Discover this project

Thames Lens

Find out how to take part or see our digital exhibitions

Discover this project

Thames Path at 30: Photography Competition

The Thames Path National Trail traces the River Thames from its source in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, where it meets the King Charles III England Coast Path.Integrated along the trail, there are new riverside public spaces created by the Thames Tideway Tunnel, each incorporating newly commissioned public artworks.The photography competition focuses on the new Tideway public spaces, the Thames Path and the riverside walkway on north…

The Ship of Tolerance

An international art project created by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov.

Discover this project

Tide Changers

Tide Changers is a development programme that provides early career artists under 30 with support to shape, develop and deliver their River Thames projects, with seed funding, marketing and development sessions. Following an extremely difficult 18 months in the creative industries, Tide Changers sees young artists provided with vital support at this important stage of their professional development.

Totally Thames festival

Totally Thames festival is an annual season of unique and inclusive arts and culture throughout the month of September with activity taking place on, beneath, and along the River Thames.Launched in 2014, Totally Thames festival emerged from the idea to expand and replace the hugely successful two-day Thames Festival along the South Bank and Bankside that ran from 1997-2013.The month-long programme runs the 42-mile stretch of the Thames through working…