About

The Totally Thames Festival returns in September 2026 with events across London celebrating rivers with arts events, active adventures, environmental initiatives, heritage and education programmes.

Totally Thames is an annual season of unique, diverse and accessible arts and culture throughout the month of September with activity taking place on, beneath, and along the River Thames.

Launched in 2014, Totally Thames emerged from the idea to expand and replace the hugely successful two-day Thames Festival along the South Bank and Bankside that ran from 1997-2013.

The month-long programme runs the 42-mile stretch of the Thames through working collaboratively with artists, local communities, river interest organisations and businesses.

Programme: 
The Line, exploring art and place along East London’s waterways, a youth-led tour (5th September) - Book Now
Meeting Point: North Greenwich Station (The O2) - Meet the Youth Guides outside WHSmith at The O2 exit from North Greenwich station.
This guided tour of The Line led by youth guides is a participatory walk connecting public art, heritage and nature along the Thames Path at North Greenwich and to the Royal Docks via the London Cable Car.

The walk begins at Greenwich Peninsula and follows the Thames Path, highlighting artworks by artists such as Antony Gormley, Gary Hume and others. The journey includes the London Cable Car crossing to the Royal Docks (cost not included), offering a dramatic aerial perspective on the Thames as both infrastructure and ecosystem.

Ganga Aarti on the Thames - A Ceremony of Light (5th September) - Book Now
Location: Greenwich Pier, King William Walk, Greenwich, London SE10 9HT
Join Chinmaya Mission UK for a free family day on the Thames, bringing people together through food, music, live entertainment and cultural celebration inspired by Indian traditions at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich. The event culminates with a Ganga Aarti - a traditional ceremony of light offered in gratitude to the river. Shared in the heart of London, this joyful gathering invites everyone to celebrate unity, heritage and reverence for nature.

Intertidal Sounds (26th September) - Book Now
Location: Online 
'Intertidal Sounds' is a collaborative sound installation exploring the peninsula sculpture 'A Slice of Reality' as an intertidal ear — a reverberative organ. Stephen Shiell, Ian Thompson and Ryan Powell will amplify the ship's structure and water flow using hydrophones and contact mics, alongside a tide-activated water harp from the River Roding. Sarah Sparkes will create a live drawing channelling these sounds with the environmental voices of the human and non-human world around the Slice.
* This piece will be broadcast for 4 hours, 2 hours either side of the high tide at 14:32, on the full moon.

Barometric Rhythm Machine (27th September) - Book Now
Location: Greenwich Foot Tunnel (South Entrance) - Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich, London SE10 9HT
A site-specific low frequency sound installation for Greenwich Foot Tunnel by Interactive Agents.
The installation offers the audience a unique and immersive sub-sonic experience, presented within the historic pedestrian river crossing.
Infrasound is sonic phenomena at frequencies below 20 Hertz. Visitors will feel the sub-bass sound waves enveloping and moving around them, due to the long wavelengths and effects generated by the tunnel architecture.

View full programme here.