I joined City Hall’s Events team in January this year. Since then I’ve worked on a range of events, but nothing has been quite like Liberty Unbound. I took over Liberty from a former colleague, Brian, who’d worked on the event since it launched. Liberty started out in Trafalgar Square before moving to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2012. After 16 years, we both felt it was time to give the festival a refresh. Before Brian left, we worked closely to create a new vision for Liberty.
We started by bringing in Greenwich and Docklands Festival on board as our programmer. They’ve been producing Liberty for many years. This year for the first time we appointed Circulate London to produce the event. The result is Liberty Unbound, which sees the festival leave Stratford in the east and visit north, west and south London.
Liberty is all about celebrating the work of deaf and disabled artists. We felt that bringing the festival to other parts of the city would help more Londoners connect with it. Liberty will start in Deptford on Thursday 30 August, and then move to Enfield the following day before finishing in Hounslow on Saturday 1 September.
Do come along to enjoy spectacular displays by disability theatre company Graeae, Candoco Dance Company and Deaf Rave. Expect storytelling on an immense scale with Graeae’s colossal Iron Man puppet bringing the classic fable to life. Be thrilled by Candoco’s inspiring performance of ‘Dedicated To’ and join in Deaf Rave for a euphoric finale!
Whether you choose to watch in Deptford, Enfield or Hounslow, Liberty Unbound is going to be an event like no other.