Wandsworth Arts Fringe returns from 6 - 22 June 2025 bigger and better than ever for Wandsworth's London Borough of Culture year. This year, we've awarded 30 brilliant projects up to £2000 each to bring creativity to Wandsworth communities this summer.
Now in its sixteenth year, WAF has seen leading talents in comedy, drag and theatre perform across the borough. This year, we've offered more funding opportunities for local artists, creatives, and companies than ever before, with £56,479 awarded to 30 projects.
The 30 grantees represent the diversity of Wandsworth and of WAF, delivering projects that celebrate the stories and proud cultural heritage of the borough, work that brings families and communities together through creativity, projects that promote and create opportunities for improved health and wellbeing, and work that sparks conversations about the big issues facing our present and our future.
Wandsworth’s rich cultural heritage is celebrated in works including Dr. Adam Stanovic and Dr. Daria Baiocchi’s The Clockwork Underpass: An Audio-Visual Installation Celebrating the Cinematic Heritage of Wandsworth which will be located on the Trinity Road Underpass; Saqib Deshmukh’s Tales of the Iron Lane, which explores how industrialisation and migration have shaped Wandsworth; and History Speak CIC’s Home Is Where The Art Is, a creative and interactive experience inspired by the treasures of Wandsworth.
We believe in making arts, culture and heritage accessible for everyone and creating new narratives and want to align the Borough of Culture status with Wandsworth also being a Borough of Sanctuary” said Saqib Deshmukh (Tales of Iron Lane)
London Borough of Culture’s commitment to using creativity as a tool for improving health and wellbeing is reflected in Group 64 Theatre for Young People’s Spreading the Joy (further), an interactive journey for children and adults that celebrates positive mental health. A cast of 10 actors with learning disabilities break stigmas and assumptions in The Baked Bean Charity presents… Life of I. Audiences can explore how the theme of freedom influences health and well-being in The Fabric of Freedom, a visual exhibition by Sound Minds members; and Krystyna Pezinska & Sian Cook deliver a “talk with artistic flair” discussing how the Royal Hospital of Neuro-disability has used creative forms of therapy in The RHN Creatives.
As always, WAF 2025 encourages families and communities to connect through taking part in creative activities. Lovers of dance, music, theatre and poetry can look forward to projects including Afternoon Tea (at the Fringe) by Fritha Fallon Dance Diversion and Hyelim Kim’s The Celadon Club – A Musical Journey Celebrating Asian Heritage. Workshops and interactive projects feature prominently in this year’s programme, including Asma Choudhry’s Connect and Unite Through Art and Culture, the “beautifully controlled chaos” of Silly Ideas by Bureau Of Silly Ideas (BOSI), and the hands-on woodworking workshops Building Bonds: Community Toy-Making Workshops led by Battersea Men's Shed.
The WAF 2025 grants are supporting artists who are starting conversations about some of the big questions of our time. Young people from schools in Southfields and Nine Elms will work with World Heart Beat Music Academy to express their views and feelings on the climate crisis in Planet Harmony. Jaspar Joseph-Lester and Ben Judd’s sound installation Falcon Rd Bridge Pavilion will create recordings of local people exploring themes of inclusion, exclusion and the rise in global nationalism; while Casper Dillen and Christy Taylor ask “what do our shared aspirations look like?” in their new performance piece Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren.
“For me, WAF2025 is a place to enter into conversation with the mysteries we live alongside. Wrestle gently with the ineffable and emerge transformed, or perhaps undone.” Casper Dillen (Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren)
LGBTQ+ experiences are explored from multiple perspectives. Bertie Collective’s Translation explores queer experiences through dance and circus styles from across the world. Photographer Steve Reeves documents the personal stories of older LGBTQ+ people in Britain in Before We Were Proud, looking back to times when attitudes towards queer people in our country where far less accepting.
Throughout our year as London Borough of Culture, Wandsworth Council is proud to support the creative ambitions of young people in our borough. During WAF. Putney Youth Musical Theatre gives young performers the opportunity to develop their musical theatre skills. Other projects, including Planet Harmony and Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren will feature workshops specially for young people in Wandsworth.
Celebrating the Heritage and Culture of Wandsworth
When Blossom Comes — Echoes of Us
Echoes of Us is an immersive audio trail that invites you to walk through the Winstanley and York Road Estates, discovering the rich stories of its long-term residents. Co-created with local voices, this project offers an opportunity to listen to personal memories and reflections, accessible through QR codes placed at significant locations in the area. As you walk through the neighbourhood, you’ll hear stories that connect past and present, shedding light on the transformations the area is undergoing. Echoes of Us celebrates the stories woven into our streets, honouring the community’s heritage.
‘Taking part in WAF 2025 is such an exciting opportunity for us to showcase a new co-created work with Wandsworth communities. With Echoes of Us, we’re thrilled to highlight the voices and stories of Wandsworth residents through a local storytelling trail. We can’t wait to start creating!’ said Maddie Wakeling of When Blossom Comes.
History Speak CIC — Home Is Where The Art Is
Home is Where the Art is offers a unique cultural experience combining local heritage, art, and community engagement. Participants will begin at Rose Community Centre with an introduction to artist Khadambi Asalache’s work and a hands-on paper-cutting workshop inspired by his designs. With a curated map in hand, participants will embark on a self-guided journey through Wandsworth’s hidden artistic gems. The route leads them to Khadambi’s iconic home, 575 Wandsworth Road. There, they will reflect on their experience and create poetry inspired by the day. Come explore, create, and be inspired by the treasures of Wandsworth.
Lucia Piquero Alvarez — in Absentia
How much history and how many stories do we lose when people go? What stays in the shadows when lights in the library of memories start to switch off? When they go, they leave behind a space with their shape, a hole that smells like them, stories, words, songs, tales… This work explores significant anecdotes from our elder’s lives, gathering stories in movement to mould into a performance made of everyday moments, infused with magical realism, reflecting on memory, absence, and transmission. It is a celebration of the vital experiences and knowledge of our elders, together with them.
People Show — People Show 149: SHOP
People Show (est. 1966) presents its 150th show SHOP, taking place in Southside Shopping Centre on Saturday 21st June. The company has worked in Wandsworth for over 10 years, in locations such as Putney Library, Battersea Park and Putney Arts Theatre, and this year they are excited to create a new show to coincide with Wandsworth Borough of Culture. Over a two-week period a company of local artists will devise a show from scratch, inspired by Southside Shopping Centre and its visitors. Expect a funny, visually striking, imaginative and unforgettable experience!
“People Show is a national treasure” The Independent
Saqib Deshmukh —Tales of the Iron Lane
Tales of the Iron Lane will be telling the stories linked to the Surrey Iron Railway and its route through Wandsworth. This will be an interactive guided walk/tour of the route of the railway from Summerstown to where it meets the Thames and will look at the history of the area and industrialisation through the lens of migration. We know that the French, Dutch and Huguenots settled in the Borough close to the Wandle and the railway and want to capture these stories as well as those of more recent migrants that have followed to show how they have all built and contributed to the borough. The walks will take place during Wandsworth Arts Fringe 6th to the 22nd of June as well as the Heritage festival 13 June – 13 July.
Saqib Deshmukh, Director Insaafi CIC said: ‘We are really looking forward to Wandsworth Arts Fringe and Heritage Festival this year.. We are so excited about the Tales of the Iron Lane project and working together with WAF/HF and our partners. We believe in making arts. culture and heritage accessible for everyone and creating new narratives and want to align the Borough of Culture status with Wandsworth also being a Borough of Sanctuary.”
Catie Ridewood — That Witch Helen: Performance & Telling Women's Stories Workshops
Sibyl Theatre brings their 4* solo show That Witch Helen – a feminist retelling of the Trojan War, told by the woman who gets blamed for it all – to Wandsworth Arts Fringe. Performances will be accompanied by workshops for local women focused on sharing women’s history and preserving our own stories through oral storytelling techniques.
Writer and performer Catie Ridewood is a Wandsworth native, now based in Brighton, and is delighted to be able to bring her first show back to her home borough.
Catie Ridewood said: ‘I grew up in Wandsworth and am excited to be able to bring my debut play back home, as well as share the techniques I’ve used to make it with local women thanks to the support of Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
Dr. Adam Stanovic and Dr. Daria Baiocchi —The Clockwork Underpass: An Audio-Visual Installation Celebrating the Cinematic Heritage
The Clockwork Underpass is an audiovisual installation by Daria Baiocchi and Adam Stanovic. The installation pays tribute to the cinematic heritage of Wandsworth; it is situated in the Trinity Road Underpass, where key scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ were filmed, and it features the sound and images from various cinematic works associated with the Wandsworth area.
G23LAB—The Lighterman
The Lighterman is a substantial, passive light sculpture that celebrates Putney’s maritime heritage, representing both the highly skilled workers who operated the shallow barges (“lighters”) that offloaded goods at Putney Wharf, and the lights that facilitated safe navigation of the vessels transporting those goods upriver. The Lighterman does not incorporate a light source itself, but instead manipulates the ambient light in its surrounding environment to produce a dynamic display of shifting colours and patterns as the viewer approaches and circles the work. These effects mirror both the twinkling of the navigation lights and the sparkling waters of the River Thames.
‘G23LAB is delighted to be involved with Wandsworth Arts Fringe in this, a red-letter year for Wandsworth as London Borough of Culture. In response, we have created a new type of light sculpture that recalls a forgotten aspect of Putney’s deep historical heritage and produces an engaging display of patterns and colours for users of Putney Pier and other passersby enjoying the natural beauty of Old Father Thames.’
Roopa Basu —The Voices of Wandsworth
Voices of Wandsworth is an evolving community project celebrating local voices through art and collective storytelling.
Originating as an immersive installation of 500+ origami butterflies reflecting messages from across the borough, and successfully navigating through Nine Elms, Battersea, and Tooting; the project now journeys to Roehampton’s Alton Estate. Butterflies and messages from the original installation will join new creations by Roehampton residents, expanding the collective ‘voice’ of Wandsworth. Through workshops and performances, residents will share new messages and stories, culminating in a vibrant installation and live event at the Roehampton Family Hub. This initiative unites creativity and connection, showcasing the power of collective expression across Wandsworth.
Roopa Basu said: ‘Absolutely delighted to be part of WAF2025 during the year celebrating Wandsworth as London’s Borough of Culture. I cannot wait to bring Voices of Wandsworth to Roehampton, celebrating its unique community and amplifying the ‘voice’ of the wider borough through art and shared stories.’
Creativity Promoting Good Health and Wellbeing
Krystyna Pezinska & Sian Cook —The RHN Creatives (Royal Hospital of Neuro-disability)
Art is integral to patient support at RHN, with up to 50 patients visiting the art room weekly for rehabilitation or leisure. They create diverse works, including ceramics, paintings, and prints, showcasing their creativity and hidden talents. This project features an art exhibition of mixed media pieces produced through individual sessions, group activities, and seasonal workshops. A public interactive workshop will also invite attendees, including patients and families, to explore adaptive equipment and experience the joy of creating art. This initiative celebrates our patients’ artistic achievements while offering a unique, inclusive experience for the wider community.
Group 64 Theatre for Young People —Spreading the Joy (further)
Spreading the Joy is a theatre show for children and their grown-ups celebrating positive mental health. Through an exciting interactive journey through space, we explore what makes us happy and how we spread joy to those around us! An exciting and silly show full of puppetry, music, aliens, and lots of surprises!
‘Group 64 are so excited to be part of such a fresh and innovative fringe festival particularly in the London Borough of Culture year. We are so grateful for the WAF grant which allows us to bring theatre to many more children in the borough.’
Sound Minds —The Fabric of Freedom
The RHN has developed a variety of creative forms of therapy over the past 170 years. This talk will discuss the evolution of occupational therapy and how the hospital has utilised it for the wellbeing and enjoyment of patients. Join our archivist and art therapists for a lively and therapeutic talk with an artistic flair!
Family and Community Events
The Paradise Cooperative — A Celebration of (horti)culture
Celebrate art, nature, and community at A Celebration of (horti)culture, a unique programme of events at The Paradise Cooperative. The series includes Arts and Gardens, an opportunity to explore nature through drawing, painting, and collaborative art; Culture of Sharing, celebrating the longstanding social culture of sharing plants; and Community Storytelling, offering an opportunity to share personal stories and reflections on our connection to the natural world. These events foster creativity, sustainability, and a deeper bond between residents and the environment. Join us in celebrating Wandsworth’s vibrant community spirit!
‘We are thrilled to be part of WAF 2025! Our events will offer Wandsworth residents a unique opportunity to creatively engage with nature, and we can't wait to see the inspiring collaborations we'll create together!’
Fritha Fallon Dance Diversion — Afternoon Tea (at the Fringe/in the Museum)
Dance Diversion brings interactive performance art to museum and art gallery spaces. For WAF 2025, Artistic Director Fritha Fallon will curate delightful and curious encounters with the culture and heritage of Wandsworth. Audiences can look forward to a live event with dance, music, film and poetry that forges sensory connections with mysterious treasures that have been collected from across the borough. Families will be invited to meet eclectic characters, art and artefacts as they reveal their fascinating stories linking the past, the present and the imagined. Offering a variety of audience engagement and interaction opportunities, Dance Diversion events are fun, immersive, playful and meaningful.
Dance Diversion said: ‘We are very excited and looking forward to this project. It will create opportunities for meaningful connections between people, places, objects and art in the borough of Wandsworth.’
Battersea Men's Shed — Building Bonds: Community Toy-Making Workshops
Join Battersea Men’s Shed for our pilot woodworking workshops, where parents, caregivers, and children can come together to make wooden toys and take them home. These hands-on sessions are designed to provide a taste of woodworking skills in a safe and supportive environment, guided by our experienced shed members. Planting seeds in young minds, these workshops provide a wonderful opportunity for children from diverse backgrounds to learn from older generations about the beauty and craftsmanship of working with wood – a remarkable natural material. The aim is to create lasting memories and strengthen family bonds. Plus, all materials are provided at no cost!
Asma Choudhry — Connect and Unite Through Art and Culture
This project aims to create an inclusive platform for women, children, and youth to express their creativity and connect with one another. Through engaging and fun art workshops, participants can explore their artistic potential while building confidence. The initiative also celebrates cultural diversity by organizing events like cultural dress shows, traditional games, poetry sessions, and food festivals. By combining art, culture and community, the project aims to bridge gaps, nature connections, and provide an avenue for healing and joy. It is a celebration of diversity and creativity that encourages participants to come together, share their stories, and honour the traditions that unite us all.
Asma Choudhry said: ‘Art and culture are the bridges that connect us. With unity and teamwork, we can achieve wonderful things’
Hyelim Kim Obang: East and South East Asian Music Performance
Hyelim Kim’s The Celadon Club – A Musical Journey Celebrating Asian Heritage
Experience the vibrant traditions of East and Southeast Asia with The Celadon Club, directed and curated by Hyelim Kim. Featuring exceptional musicians performing on traditional instruments, this mesmerising musical production highlights the shared aesthetics of Asian cultures while reimagining folk music and presenting newly composed works. Immerse yourself in a unique celebration of cultural harmony and musical artistry. Join The Celadon Club for a breathtaking performance, bringing together talented musicians from Thailand, Japan, China, and South Korea. This event is a true testament to multicultural unity and the power of music and dance to connect diverse communities.
Autin Dance Theatre Parade —The Giant Wheel
Parade is a moving performance inspired by the beauty, power and impact of people from different walks of life coming together, featuring a 12-foot tall Giant Wheel powered by 6 street artists and accompanied by music and local community groups. Autin Dance Theatre uses their unique blend of contemporary storytelling, striking physicality and innovative large designs to transport audiences and communities along a carefully choreographed procession.
Bureau Of Silly Ideas (BOSI) —Silly Ideas
Take back control of your streets with this very wet and very silly interactive installation! Unleash your inner Bash Street Kid! Assert your democratic right to get everyone just a little bit wet! This year local champions of outdoor arts, Bureau Of Silly Ideas, are back to cause beautiful controlled chaos in the public realm. Coming to a street near you, so watch out!
WAF Programmes Taking on Big Questions
Steve Reeves — Before We Were Proud
Before We Were Proud is a project that documents the personal histories of older members of the LGBTQ+ community.
As Britain gradually embraces a more open-minded perspective, it’s easy to overlook the not-so-distant past when individuals within the LGBTQ+ community faced both physical and mental abuse, often living under the threat of arrest and imprisonment. Fear, shame, and isolation were prevalent for those whose sexual identities deviated from the majority.
This project aims to preserve the stories of those who have lived through this significant transformation in our society, ensuring that their voices and experiences are never forgotten.
If you have a story to tell and would like to participate in this project, please get in touch. [javascript protected email address]
Casper Dillen and Christy Taylor — Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren
Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren is a new performance by Casper Dillen and Christy Taylor that combines music, commonplace rituals, and histories —both domestic and imagined—to provoke thought and reflection on national identity. With humour, objects, and performative movement, the project offers a contemplative pause on patriotism and cultural pride, asking: what could our shared aspirations look like? A workshop on Devising and Creating Performance will accompany the project. We will focus on the skills of making a piece collaboratively, communicating ideas and tweaking them together. To create and empower. Navigating different roles of power vis a vis a creative work. These workshops will offer 18-25 year olds an insight into the workings of a creative company producing work in the UK.
Casper Dillen said:‘For me, WAF2025 is a place to enter into conversation with the mysteries we live alongside. Wrestle gently with the ineffable and emerge transformed, or perhaps undone.’
Jaspar Joseph-Lester and Ben Judd — Falcon Rd Bridge Pavilion
Through the design and production process we will respond to themes such as inclusion and exclusion, interior and exterior, togetherness and separateness. The rise in global nationalism has compounded and further complicated some of these ideas; how do we now position ourselves, where are we in relation to this person, or that group? The central human need to both belong to a group and be an individual is an enduring paradox that will be explored through sound.
The sound pavilion is intended to work as a place to listen and breathe, a space for soundscapes to open new perspectives and insights about the local area. We will work with community groups to develop a series of recordings that address ideas around what it means to belong and how this can be communicated through sound and space. The sound pavilion will host these recordings and will be a site of inspiration for new soundscapes.
World Heart Beat Academy — Planet Harmony
World Heart Beat's Planet Harmony project allows young people to express their concerns and responses to the climate and environmental crisis through music and creative activities. World Heart Beat will be working with schools in Southfields and Nine Elms and with the wider local community to develop and perform songs through fun and practical workshops in partnership with socially engaged artists and with a higher education science department. Ziggazah, World Heart Beat's Youth Board, will cocreate the project, including curating the festival day programme in June 2025.
Malsara Thorne —ReMaykit
Remaykit is an upcycled fashion show which showcases the creative work of designers and makers. The show aims to highlight the skill and passion of sewers, knitters and menders who understand the positive impact that mending and repairing clothes has on reducing waste, landfill and our carbon footprint, while enjoying a creative hobby that is good for health and wellbeing.
Join us for a fun, inclusive event celebrating the exciting possibilities of reimagined and remade clothes. Please contact us if you’d like to take part.
Malsara Thorne said: ‘We are delighted to be debuting at WAF 2025 and hope it will spark lots of creative ideas all over Wandsworth.’
Bertie Collective —Translation
A dance and Chinese pole (circus) show exploring queer experiences, Translation mixes contemporary, capoeira, krump, hip hop, in accordance with Chinese pole (a 5m high scaffolding pole covered in rubber) to create an exciting piece of queer theatre.
Tom Sergeant —Putney Youth Musical Theatre
Putney Youth Musical Theatre is a Wandsworth based group that allows young people to grow and develop their skills through the rehearsal and presentation of slick musical theatre. This year our goal is to nourish young people’s talents and connect existing communities while presenting the hit musical ‘Matilda the Musical Jr’.
Tom Sergeant said: ‘Putney Youth Musical Theatre are excited to get to perform at WAF25 in a festival in our home borough. We’re grateful to the community champions for choosing to support our project. The grant will help us to continuing to nourish and develop young people while presenting slick youth musical theatre.’