This weekend, the first-ever Chelsea Arts Festival will take over the borough’s impressive cultural spaces, filling the Royal Court Theatre, Saatchi Gallery, Cadogan Hall, the English National Ballet School and more with a series of events designed to celebrate the creativity of the area and open it up to a new generation.
For its inaugural year, programmer Tessa Clarfelt wanted to ensure that the festival was accessible to all. “From the very beginning, we wanted Chelsea Arts Festival to feel welcoming and inclusive rather than lofty or highbrow, and to appeal to people of all ages,” she tells Broadsheet. To achieve that, the festival’s tickets are affordably priced – few tickets crack the £20 mark and none are more than £50 – and there’s an outdoor programme of performance and activities in Sloane Square that’s entirely free.
The programme is a three-day melting pot of literature, music, fashion, film, television, art, dance and comedy. Highlights include a live recording of The London Theatre Review podcast with One Day star Ambika Mod and the Royal Court Theatre’s artistic director David Byrne, and a discussion on art and mental health with author Matt Haig, broadcaster Annie Macmanus and author, advocate and Rizzle Kicks musician Jordan Stephens. There’s also a celebration of women’s writing at Cadogan Hall, with readings from an all-star cast including Malala, Sheila Hancock and Sara Pascoe, hosted by author and founder-director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kate Mosse, who emphasises the importance of events like this in elevating women’s voices.
“It’s never not a good thing to celebrate brilliant, dazzling creativity, but with women’s rights [under threat] around the world, it’s vital we keep women’s voices in the mix,” Mosse tells Broadsheet. “On the night, I want to read from a letter exchange I am having with a brilliant Afghan writer, Parand. We met when I ran an online workshop for women living under the Taliban repression, organised by the charity Untold Narratives. It’s important because every woman has the right to her voice.”
Still only in its first incarnation, Chelsea Arts Festival’s programme is impressive, with other big names including Stephen Fry, David Shrigley, Elizabeth Day, Zandra Rhodes and plenty more all appearing across the weekend schedule. “For generations, artists, musicians, writers, and thinkers have made Chelsea their home, and we wanted to capture that spirit while giving it a fresh, contemporary, and forward-thinking spin,” says Clarfelt. “There has been such enthusiasm and momentum with this event – and we can’t wait to see how it grows.”
Chelsea Arts Festival runs from September 18–21 at venues across Chelsea.
