Culture, creativity and community to celebrate Wandsworth’s year as London Borough of Culture

Wandsworth is embarking on a year-long celebration of culture, creativity and community, as part of the borough’s tenure as The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2025. The 2025 programme is packed with unmissable events, groundbreaking performances, and unique cultural experiences. Tickets for the events will be made available soon, among the highlights are:

• Strictly Wandsworth (26 April) – The biggest dance spectacle the borough has ever seen, uniting 200 dancers from 22 local organisations in a breathtaking celebration of movement. Created by Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE, the visionary behind mass movement performances for global events such as the London 2012 Olympic Games, Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant, and Manchester International Festival.

• A supercharged Wandsworth Arts Fringe (WAF) (6 - 22 June) – Overlapping with the Wandsworth Heritage Festival, the programme blends cutting-edge arts with local history, while free tickets and enhanced accessibility ensure everyone can take part in this dynamic, borough-wide celebration of creativity.

• The Wandsworth Heritage Festival (13 June – 13 July) celebrates Wandsworth’s rich history with a packed programme of walks, talks, exhibitions and performances. Expect encounters with the dead in cemetery walks, storytelling and craft workshops.

• Battersea Park In Concert (23 - 25 August) – A spectacular three-day open-air concert series over the August Bank Holiday, blending world-class classical and jazz music, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, with great food and magical summer moments.

• Urban Flow (13 September) – A stunning silk banner procession, animated by 100 performers and digital art, blending movement, martial arts and dance, developed with India's Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts and Wandsworth’s Tavaziva Dance.

• Liberty (26-28 September), Battersea Arts Centre and other venues) – Working in collaboration with CRIPtic Arts, the festival will offer a bold platform of work from some of the most exciting disabled creatives.

• Palace of Varieties (26 November) - the Clapham Grand celebrates its 125th anniversary and they are marking the occasion with a birthday extravaganza at Wandsworth’s iconic ‘Palace of Varieties’.

• The Wandsworth Way (July 2025 - March 2026) –A brand-new radio drama series, produced by Theatre503 and Riverside Radio. Imagine The Archers, but set in South West London.

• Our Music Our Freedom – a deep dive into the last 50 years of Wandsworth’s rich and diverse musical heritage

• Portrait of a National Treasure (early 2026) – a powerful tribute to Dame Carmen Munroe, a national and local icon whose trailblazing career has shaped British cultural life.

• Tooting Food Festival is a feast of togetherness, sustainability and the rich diversity of Tooting. Locals grow, cook and share homegrown produce, connecting through flavours, stories and traditions.

• Culturally Mindful: Diversity in Creative Health (year-long) – A pioneering project using arts and culture in social prescribing to boost mental wellbeing. Working with the NHS, it brings together Global Majority artists and lived experience groups to co-design inclusive creative health interventions.

• Memory Boxes for Dementia Patients (year-long), in partnership with the University of Roehampton and local organisations, will bring Wandsworth’s rich heritage collection into care homes and community spaces.