If you thought the Southbank Centre was just a place to catch a concert or stroll along the Thames, think again.
In 2026, it celebrates its 75th anniversary in unapologetically spectacular style, with Danny Boyle at the helm of the biggest party the arts have seen in decades.
Boyle’s You Are Here, taking over the site from May 3-4, is a full-blown, site-wide takeover exploring 75 years of British youth culture. Think fashion, music, politics, and rebellion, all colliding in explosive performances that transform familiar spaces into something entirely new.
The film director said: “The Southbank Centre is for everyone, like the NHS - a dose of culture, like a vitamin injection, it lifts you. Our ambition is for as many people as possible to experience the variety and vitality of this wonderful site, especially those on their first visit.”
He added: “In You Are Here, we want to send people on an adventure, through an arts centre that is usually experienced in individual venues, but transform it in people’s minds so they can see the Southbank Centre in a completely original way.”
Heritage meets wow-factor everywhere you look. Anish Kapoor returns to the Hayward Gallery after 28 years with a landmark exhibition.
Meanwhile, pianist Yuja Wang launches Playing with Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang, a mixed-reality experience that transforms the recital into a mind-bending 50-minute adventure.
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Wang explained: “I have found so much inspiration from joining forces previously with artists like the legendary David Hockney and now collaborating with the talented creatives and technologists behind this project.
To be able to marry art and technology with this new immersive installation is really a dream come true.”
It’s not just London getting a slice of the action. The Centre’s anniversary programme goes nationwide, taking art, literature, and music to over 40 towns and cities across the UK.
From A Poet in Every Port, which sees a mobile poetry library travel the coastline, to the British Art Show touring five cities for the first time, the celebrations aim to make contemporary art accessible to communities who rarely get a gallery fix.
Young people are centre-stage. Lemn Sissay said of Imagine the Future: “The Southbank Centre is Lambeth and Lambeth is the Southbank... When children put pen to paper to envision tomorrow, they're not just crafting poems - they're discovering the power of their own voices.”
Music lovers will have plenty to get excited about. Steel pan orchestras return for a site-wide celebration, Steve Reich’s 90th birthday is marked by a major concert in the Royal Festival Hall.
Interactive works by Luke Jerram, Jeppe Hein, Sir Quentin Blake, and others transform the Centre into a playground of sound, colour, and movement.
Seventy-five years after the Festival of Britain transformed the South Bank into London’s cultural heart, the Centre is trying to prove it’s still the place to see, hear, and feel the future of art.
Whether you’re an immersive tech junkie, a classical music fan, or a first-time visitor, 2026 promises a year of inspiration. For more info about the celebrations, including when tickets go on sale, visit southbankcentre.co.uk.
For your diaries:
New Year’s Day Ceilidh
Thu 1 Jan
Imagine
Wed 11 – Sun 21 Feb, featuring Jacqueline Wilson
Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life
Tue 17 Feb – Sun 3 May, Hayward Gallery
Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart
Tue 17 Feb – Sun 3 May, Hayward Gallery
Southbank Centre x Montreux Jazz Festival
Fri 13 – Sun 15 Mar
Max Richter
Fri 27 Mar
New public artworks
From April, works by Sir Quentin Blake, Luke Jerram, Lakwena Maciver & Abimaro
Multitudes
Thu 16 Apr – Fri 1 May, featuring Southbank Centre Resident Orchestras
A Poet in Every Port
May – Sep, touring to 10 coastal venues nationwide
You Are Here
Sat 3 & Mon 4 May, by Danny Boyle, Gareth Pugh, Carson McColl and Paulette Randall
Skate Space 50 exhibition
Thu 7 May – Sun 21 Jun
Michael Rosen’s 80th birthday
Sat 23 May
A celebration of Bronski Beats’ Age of Consent
Sun 24 May
Meltdown - our 31st edition
Thu 11 – Sun 21 Jun
Anish Kapoor
Tue 16 Jun – Sun 18 Oct, Hayward Gallery
Stephanie Lake: COLOSSUS
Thu 25 – Sat 27 Jun
Refugee Week
Fri 26 – Sat 27 Jun
Imagine the Future,
From Jul, with Lemn Sissay
South Asian Sounds
Wed 1 – Sun 5 Jul
Poetry International
Fri 10 – Sun 12 Jul, featuring a celebration of Benjamin Zephaniah
Young People’s Pavilion
Thu 16 Jul – Mon 31 Aug
Rough Trade Weekend
Fri 17 – Sun 19 Jul
Shechter II: IN THE BRAIN
Wed 22 – Sat 25 Jul
Steel Scenes: A Steel Pan Weekender
Sat 25 & Sun 26 Jul
Goalhanger Southbank Centre Takeover
Fri 4 – Sun 6 Sep
Creative Intelligence
Fri 11 – Sun 13 Sep
Playing with Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang
Fri 11 Sep – Sun 13 Dec
Letters to the Future
Fri 18 – Sun 20 Sep
Oratorio for London
Sat 19 Sep
This is My Life: Duckie Salutes Shirley Bassey
Sun 20 Sep
Our classical music programme’s Opening Festival
Tue 22 – Sun 27 Sep, featuring Steve Reich’s 90th birthday
Angélique Kidjo
Sat 3 Oct, with Chineke!
London Literature Festival
Wed 21 Oct – Sat 1 Nov
Kids’ Countdown
Thu 31 Dec
