All new Totally Thames in 2023 will celebrate the river with innovative festival hubs across London

Weekend One of Totally Thames will see the Creative Mile in Brentford come to life with events along this free art trail on a mile-long stretch of river. This is Creative Mile’s third year celebrating the artists and creativity flowing through the heart of Brentford, this year focused on the theme of water, profiling over 70 local creatives at venues around Brentford. At the riverside listed estate Syon House, Once Up On a Cube is a playful, site-specific performance promoting green architecture and reclaiming our public spaces. Created by Scirocco Dance Theatre, Once Up On a Cube aims to raise awareness of the impact that architecture has on our social settings, and asks if we can learn from the Thames a way of planning and designing our city that can be ever-flowing, fluid and dynamic.

On Weekend Three, festivalgoers can head to London Bridge for numerous events including Tied 3, an outdoor performance by XAP. Tied 3 is part of a series held in different locations, exploring connections between women and their environment, their work and each other, and their past and present. Six women in timeless clothing take their places on the foreshore of the Thames and begin their work, constructing a fishing net that gradually widens outward. Audiences are invited to linger, listen to their stories, engage in conversation and even collaborate with them in their work. At The Old Operating Museum and Herb Garret in London Bridge, audiences can discover Tidal Traces, an exhibition of video works, cyanography, micrography and chromatography by Irma Irsara. The exhibition explores environmental issues through the material that finds its way into the river Thames, especially microfibre plastics and pharmaceutical contaminants, and the impact of it on the health of the river’s ecosystem and surrounding population.

Kingston upon Thames will be the last hub during Weekend Five, closing out the festival. Creative Flow: Kingston, Art and the River delves into the borough’s centuries-long association with creativity and the river. The area has been an abundant source of creative inspiration for artists and authors from the 17th century through to the present day, including Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. Featuring works from Kingston Museum’s permanent collection, historic images are juxtaposed with contemporary equivalents by local artists, including award-winning documentary photographer Alexander Beer.