The Music is Black Festival has been announced for 2026.
Taking place at East Bank at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the festival “encompasses an eight-month season of events celebrating Black British music,” with “four co-curated summer weekends of live music and performance across the park between June and September,” says the festival.
The festival will bring together institutions of London’s East Bank alongside partners and programming led by V&A East, BBC Music Studios, UAL’s London College of Fashion, Sadler’s Wells East, and UCL.
The festival was inspired by the V&A East Museum’s inaugural exhibition ‘The Music is Black: A British Story’, which celebrated 125 years of Black music-making in the UK. The Music is Black Festival will expand this programming through music, exhibitions, talks, screenings, dance, digital content.
13–14 June, 11–12 July, 22–23 August and 12–13 September will play host to free-to-attend weekends of live performances at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and will be “a leading figure in music and culture” that will showcase “both internationally renowned artists and the most exciting talent emerging in and around east London,” says the festival.
Tamsin Ace, director of East Bank, said: “We invite everyone to celebrate East Bank’s first festival, and to share this extraordinary cultural playground. Tapping into the talent and vision of the existing east London creative community, we’ve been building a remarkable multi-institutional cultural ecosystem here over the last few years, and I personally can’t wait to share it.”
Full festival programme and event listings will be announced soon.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.festivalinsights.com ’
