Southbank Centre announces climate-focused season Planet Summer

Southbank Centre is presenting a landmark multi-artform season called Planet Summer, from 21 June to 3 September 2023, that explores themes of care, hope, connection, and activism in response to the climate emergency. Through performances, exhibitions, music, new artistic commissions, and free programming, audiences will be connected with a range of environmental issues and encouraged to actively care for the environment and nature. Highlights from Planet Summer include:

Image: Southbank Centre. © Morley von Sternberg

The Southbank Centre's Planet Summer season presents a series of talks and discussions from prominent international climate activists such as Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Tori Tsui, and Vanessa Nakate. Other speakers include Dominique Palmer on finding joy in nature, Mikaela Loach discussing her book It's Not That Radical, and Mark Carney providing economic perspectives on climate action and finance. Rebecca Solnit, Thelma Young-Lutunataua, and guests argue for hope over climate despair, while Intelligence Squared offers balanced perspectives on climate activism.

Image: Mikaela Loach © Emma Hardy

The Hayward Gallery is hosting an exhibition called Dear Earth: Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis featuring over fourteen international artists. The exhibition will explore themes of resilience, care, and tending and will invite audiences to consider the role of art in climate activism. The exhibition includes new commissions from artists and community groups and marks the first time that Daiara Tukano and Aluaiy Kaumakan have exhibited their work in a major UK art institution.

Image: Intelligence Squared Is Climate Activism Working. courtesy of Intelligence Squared

The Poetry International festival, founded by Ted Hughes in 1967, returns for the first time since 2019 and focuses on the environment, celebrating ecopoets as activists who use their craft to preserve languages and environments. The festival features major ecopoets, including CAConrad, John Kinsella, Jorie Graham, Olive Senior, and Yang Lian, who will present new work and lead workshops. The festival also includes the Gingko Prize ceremony, a major international award for ecopoetry, and celebrates the National Poetry Library's 70th Birthday, marking 35 years at the Southbank Centre. Additionally, Cerys Matthews revisits Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood.

The Southbank Centre has partnered with urban rewilding organisation SUGi to plant a new permanent feature, a 135 square meter, 300-tree forest using the Miyawaki method. This technique allows for quick growth and low maintenance, and the forest is designed to encourage wildlife and nature in the urban environment. The project, supported by Moët & Chandon, is estimated to become self-sustaining in 2-3 years, providing a carbon sequestration average rate of 3 kilos per square meter per annum, totalling 405 kilos per annum over the first 20 years of growth.

Image: SUGi Pocket Forest, Photographic 10 year visualisation

The Herd Theatre has introduced a new interactive experience called REPLAY, which is built entirely out of waste materials and offers endless play opportunities for children. The sessions are designed to be sensory adapted and relaxed, and there are also early years sessions available. In addition, there are several artistic works that explore the climate crisis in diverse ways. The SpongeBob Musical, featuring original music by iconic rock and pop artists and starring Ru-Paul's Drag Race legend Divina De Campo, , an entertaining family show that proves the power of optimism really can save the world!. MELTWATER, a poignant instrumental and vocal work focuses on the melting polar ice-cap, using the sounds created by ice sheets with video by Richard Sidey. Earth Makes No Sound is a collaborative choral work that combines a core professional company with a large ensemble of community singers. Finally, Ontroerend Goed brings the London premiere of Are we not drawn onward to new erA, a show that traces the process of human movement and imagines how we can work backwards from apocalypse.

Image: Spongebob The Musical replacement. © Sella Door.

The Planet Summer creative learning program is offering free events including the Bird Rave interpretive dance and the REFRAME showcase for secondary schools and emerging artists in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. The REFRAME program will allow 21 secondary schools to work with artists, graphic designers, illustrators, and climate experts to design class zines that respond to the climate emergency and its impact on young people's mental health. In addition, the REFRAME residency will support 80 Black and Black Mixed heritage creatives in London, Birmingham, and Manchester as part of a talent development program in partnership with Factory International, Midlands Arts Centre, and Birmingham City University's STEAMhouse, supported by Apple.

The Southbank Centre’s flagship creative writing programme for primary schools, Imagine A Story, is inviting over 2,000 children in London, Newcastle, Sunderland, Kendall and Norwich to produce two books and performances which will tour nationwide. The children will work with award-winning children’s author Sita Brahmachari to create Rewilding Dream, a story about how children’s ideas are making the biggest changes for the future of our planet. Click here to discover the complete list of events and secure your spot by booking your tickets. Ticket sales begin tomorrow!

Date: 21 June- 3 September 2023. Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.