New Royal Docks Originals 2025 festival emphasises culture, connectivity and Enterprise…
The curtain is coming down on an inuaugural series of events showcasing arts and culture at the Royal Victoria Docks in the east, London…
by Suman Bhuchar
LONDONERS have a new outdoor festival Royal Docks Originals to enjoy in the Royal Victoria Docks area – which is steeped in heritage and is a growing hub of culture and creativity.
www.asianculturevulture.com attended the set piece welcoming event.
It was hosted by Kate Anderson, head of cultural programme & partnerships for the Royal Docks Team; a joint delivery team established in 2017 to help spearhead the regeneration of the Royal Docks, London’s only Enterprise Zone.
She talked about this new festival and introduced Rokhsana Fiaz, OBE Mayor of Newham.
She told the audience that the Festival would showcase local talent, and was part of investment into the area to regenerate jobs, and creativity, contributing to the local economy and showing what culture brings to the human experience.
“Of learning, of being wowed and especially in this time, of bringing people together,” Fiaz enthused, adding: “We are really living in challenging times, we are all witness to what feels for me – someone who grow up in the 70s and 80s with the rhetoric of Far Right, and the appropriation of our British flag and our England flag in a way that made me as a young person of colour growing up in Newham, not belong or not thinking I could belong – but in the period thereafter, I was enabled, through so many different creative approaches to really feel I belonged.
“And that’s exactly what we want to do with this Royal Docks Festival is to bring people to this place.”
Shonagh Manson, assistant director of culture and creative industries at the Greater London Authority stressed that culture and the creative industries were really important for the UK and created one in five jobs in London.
“Culture matters, because it’s how we feel, express and forge our identities and come together in good times and bad”, Manson stated on Tuesday, September 26.
The festival opened the day before, with an incredible outdoor spectacle installation called ‘Rekindling’ created by the French outdoor arts group, Compagnie Carabossa, which took over the entire Royal Docks space outside City Hall, Newham.
These fire installations were awe inspiring and we hope they will return for the next festival. ‘Rekindling’ occurred over just two nights.
Audiences were invited to walk around the installations which consisted of arches with circles by lit fires and other outdoor small fires.
Along with the golden colour of the flames, you could also smell the petrol and coal; it sounds prosaic but they are beautiful as the pictures will attest.
Alongside these, there was also as soundscape consisting of an audio of oral history testimonies created by Eastside Community Heritage and Community Links, consisting of local people talking about how their area had changed.
Another highlight is a new installation made of LED neons by artist, Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE, which is situated between the IFS Cable Car and City Hall entitled ‘Royal Reflections and Sweet Hope’, reflecting the themes of transformation, decolonisation and ice-cream factories that used to be at the docks.
Mounted on top is a full size, neon tiger sculpture, ‘My Tiger Janu’. Burman’s’ installation will later be moved to a new site but will remain for two years.
The festival is a collaboration between Royal Docks, London Borough of Newham and the Mayor of London and continues today (October 4). It was free to the public.
Top picture: ‘My Tiger Janu’ by Chila Burman on display (pic:©SumanBhuchar)
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Royal Docks Originals 2025: explore the full programme | Royal Docks
Full programme brochure https://www.royaldocks.london/media/RDO_A5_Event_Brochure_DIGITAL_VERSION_SPREADS_FA.pdf
