Festival programme invites public to explore the extraordinary

The Great Exhibition Road Festival has officially launched its programme, featuring hundreds of activities for all ages over a summer weekend.

Running from 28-30 June, South Kensington’s Exhibition Road will host a celebration of curiosity and discovery, with a new, free festival of art, science and culture. It is a collaboration of more than twenty institutions in and around South Kensington, including Imperial College London, the Royal Commission of 1851, Royal Albert Hall, V&A, Natural History Museum and the Science Museum.

Registration for the free weekend event is now open.

The public programme and website for the Great Exhibition Road Festival has been officially launched – showcasing the weekend’s array of live experiments, interactive workshops, behind-the-scenes tours, exciting talks, delicious food and dynamic performances to inspire all ages.

Explore the extraordinary: About the programme

The new website is the central hub for detailed information about the programme of activities, how to get to South Kensington on the weekend, and how to registration for the Festival for free.

Plan your visit by easily navigating your way through the hundreds of events and activities in the What’s On section by filtering by date, activity types, age and venue.

There are also curated guides offering inspiration for you, such as in the Festival’s main themes:

Explore the extraordinary

• Roll up, roll up to our science-inspired Victorian fairground of the heart in our Body and Mind zone. Or take an immersive, multi-sensory dip into dark matter. While inside our robot zone you can play air hockey against a robot or ask our robot butler for a drink.

Experiment with us

• Make your own tactile map of the moon, use lego Mindstorms and iPads to build autonomous vehicles to navigate the city or create your own wonder material sculptures and space art out on Exhibition Road.

Express yourself

• Join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for The Planets: An HD Odyssey or become a member of the James Brown horn section – there’s loads of ways to immerse yourself in art, music and theatre at the Festival. Contribute to a collaborative magazine using collage making and storytelling at our Imagination Station, or head to the performance tent to hear science-themed spoken word poetry.

Expand your mind

• Escape the Festival for a full programme of talks and debates. We put a spotlight on the latest research covering everything from missions to Jupiter to air pollution mapping in the capital. Whilst our Ideas Exchange series sees artist, designers scientists and campaigners come together to discuss everything from the future of food to solving plastic in our oceans and the role AI can play in creativity.

And special curated journeys have been brought together for specific interests such as:

• Design highlights
• Discover Albertopolis
• Festival exclusives
• Green highlights
• Kids highlights
• Music highlights
• Science and Arts highlights
• Teen highlights

And of course information on getting to the Festival, food and drink that will be on offer across the weekend, and Accessibility are all detailed on the site.

1851 vision: About the Festival

The Great Exhibition Road Festival is a collaboration between Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum, the V&A, the Royal Albert Hall, the Science Museum, the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and others.

The celebration marks the bicentenary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, taking inspiration from their vision for the Great Exhibition of 1851, which showcased the latest innovations in British industry and culture, and was visited by six million people.

Register for free

To attend the Festival, please make sure to register for free. Registering is the only way to receive the latest Festival updates, a first-look at the full programme, and exclusive opportunities to book onto popular talks and behind-the-scenes tours.

Disclaimer: All events are subject to confirmation.