You are invited to a showcase of talent from across the festival with great music, dance, pop-up performances, food, drinks and festival meet-up. Explore the amazing Conway Hall and experience a night-at-the-museum atmosphere, for Bloomsbury Festival’s take-over with performances throughout the building on the main stage, in the lovely Library, on staircases, in the foyer, and more.

With food and drink on sale in the foyer.

MAIN HALL

6.30pm – 7pm
A Call – Sparks (Lit Path – Parbati Chaudhury’s kathak students)
Kathak – Be led by the performers’ voices into a stirring, intricate showcase of kathak with live music. Immerse yourself in rhythms, poetry, and melodies as the ensembles morph, weave and disperse. Khatak is a performing art composed of complex dance and music languages, rich energetic-emotional palettes, and stylised storytelling

7.15pm – 7.45pm
Samka Meets Neo Norte
Music, Dance and movement celebrating the Global South and the experience of ancestral Andean cultures. A contemporary arts performance involving movement, writing, recycled fabrics, and Laqan Paxhi wind instrument. The performance creates a ritual to celebrate intuition and the ancestral cultural values and with the natural environment, based on ancestral indigenous values and exploring sustainable ways of living.and life testimonies of migrants. Experience Bolivian and South American cultures. With support of Arts Council England.

8pm – 8.30pm
VENI. Voices of the Islands – Alot Teatro
Ancient harmonies come together in a captivating musical journey through reimagined polyphonic chants and physical theatre. VENI. Voices of the Islands present a performance of re-imagined Mediterranean chants and oral traditions, by a physical-musical ensemble from the Alot Teatro collective, where the synergy of voices and bodies of the actors create a captivating experience.

8.45pm – 9.30pm
A Call – Sparks (Lit Path – Parbati Chaudhury’s kathak students)
Repeating and building on their opening performance the Khatak dancers complete the evening’s entertainment in the Main Hall

FOYER & STAIRS

(Foyer and stairs performances all approximately 10 to 15 minutes)

Through the evening:
Bar and Food in the Foyer
Goodness Gracious Feast offer a menu of Dal, samosas, rice and salad.
Special Specimen – Exhibition in the Foyer
An intimate video installation inviting you to look closely at a unique specimen of humankind through the lens of a microscope and observe some of the flaws and strengths that make us human.

6.30pm A Call – Sparks (Lit Path – Parbati Chaudhury’s kathak students)
Khatak dancers move through foyer into Main Hall

7pm
VENI. Voices of the Islands – Alot Teatro
Re-imagined Mediterranean chants – on the stairs

7.45pm
Samke Meets Neo Norte
Bolivian and Andean musicians with Laqan Paxhi wind instrument

LIBRARY

6.40pm
26 Writers & Barbican Young Poets Poppy Kanu & Abu Leila
26 presents poets from their new collaboration and festival exhibition 26 Connections

7.30pm
Cold Islanders
Nicole Reid, empowered storyteller and author, uplifts hearts through her words. Her inspiring memoirs and poetry shine a light on life’s triumphs and struggles, inviting you to embrace authenticity and find strength in faith. She is the voice for the unspoken and believes the power of our stories change lives.

8.30pm
Rez Kabir and Mukul Ahmed
Storytelling from South Asian perfomers and artists.

BERTRAND RUSSELL ROOM

7pm – 9pm
AI Music Symposium with Live Music Performances
Live performances by Erik Nystrom
For full details of this event (which also runs on Sat & Sun) CLICK HERE

BROCKWAY ROOM

Through the Evening:
Springboard Collective Exhibition
(Springboard is the festival programme for young adults)

7.15pm – 7.35pm
Beyond the Fall Stormflower (short film)
By Jacob Lansiquot-Wilds. A man journeys through states of peace and war holding onto silver linings of a storm.

8pm – 8.30pm
Michelle Hromin (clarinet)
A contemporary clarinet performance. Michelle offers a preview of her new album, and her festival event Present Tense, exploring different sonic worlds on her clarinet.