A major new addition to London’s international cultural calendar for 2026, The Music is Black Festival from East Bank at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 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.
A celebration of creativity, culture and collaboration
Beginning this spring, the festival will bring together east London’s creative energy with the collective talent and innovation of East Bank’s core institutions and partners, with programming led by V&A East, BBC Music Studios, UAL’s London College of Fashion, Sadler’s Wells East, and UCL. East Bank represents the biggest ever cultural investment by the Mayor of London; it is a powerhouse for creativity, innovation and learning, helping to support local young people into training and employment opportunities. East Bank is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Inspired by the V&A East Museum’s inaugural exhibition ‘The Music is Black: A British Story’, the festival encompasses a programme of music, exhibitions, talks, screenings, dance and digital content, with choreographer-curated club nights and social dance events at Sadler’s Wells East; free talks, screenings and exhibitions presented by UCL and London College of Fashion, UAL; and unique contributions from the BBC, diving deep into the history of Black British music. Partner-led events will take place at all East Bank institutions, with a training academy designed to amplify local talent and build a career pipeline into the creative industries.
The Music is Black Festival is the first festival devoted to spotlighting the creativity, collaboration and community that define East Bank’s partnerships with local people and organisations across east London.
“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.”
– Tamsin Ace, director of East Bank
Key dates and early programme highlights
1) Four free-to-attend festival weekends of live performances at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will be curated by a leading figure in music and culture, showcasing both internationally renowned artists and the most exciting talent emerging in and around east London.
Saturday 13–14 Sunday June
Saturday 11–12 Sunday July
Saturday 22–23 Sunday August
Saturday 12–13 Sunday September
2) V&A East presents ‘The Music is Black: A British Story’. The foundation of the festival, the exhibition chronicles 125 years of Black music-making in Britain. Spanning four continents and 12 decades, this is a story of excellence and struggle, resilience and joy.
3) The BBC is partnering with V&A East, creating an online hub of compelling content for ‘The Music is Black: A British Story’, including a visual mixtape of 100 years of Black British music on the BBC, with additional festival programming to be announced in due course.
4) Sadler’s Wells East becomes the festival’s social dance hub, with four specially programmed weekends, each responding to a different genre of Black British music. Saturdays will be devoted to family social dance events in the daytime and choreographer-curated club nights in the evenings, incorporating a mix of performances and new choreographic commissions. DJ sessions on Sundays invite the community to come together and dance in a relaxed setting.
5) London College of Fashion, UAL explores how music and fashion shape London’s cultural scenes. From 14 April to 14 June, the exhibition ‘Resonant Matter’ explores how London’s underground culture is powered by the music and fashion born from its diverse communities – from pirate radio stations and street protests to sound‑system culture and club nights.
6) UCL dives into Black British music’s impact on UK culture with a series of talks and screenings exploring and honouring Black British Music’s contribution to sport, film and fashion, investigating its impact in London and across the UK. The series is curated by UCL’s Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, Academic-in-Residence for the festival.
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Full festival programme and event listings are to follow, and will be published on the festival website at: https://www.queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk/themusicisblackfestival
