Getty ImagesShirley Bassey, Anish Kapoor and Lemn Sissay are among the big names being celebrated in events at the Southbank Centre next year as part of a celebration of British youth culture.
Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle and Goalhanger, the podcast producer behind The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is Entertainment, will also take part in the arts venue’s programme for 2026.
Boyle, who won Best Director in 2009 for his film Slumdog Millionaire, said the Southbank Centre was “for everyone, like the NHS – a dose of culture, like a vitamin injection, it lifts you”.
The programme of events will coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain.
Getty ImagesThe festival was a national exhibition to promote the country’s art, design, technology and science and uplift the public after the Second World War.
Taking place from May to September 1951, the festival kickstarted the regeneration of the South Bank, with the Southbank Centre the only permanent cultural building to come from it.
A national programme of art, literature and music will also aim to reach one million people in more than 40 towns and cities across the UK to mark the 75th anniversary.
The Southbank Centre is now the UK’s fifth most visited attraction, welcoming more than 3.7 million people through its doors last year.
Elaine Bedell, chief executive of the Southbank Centre, said: “Over the past 75 years, the Southbank Centre has grown from a single concert hall into the UK’s largest arts centre.
“Our 75th anniversary season keeps the spirit of the Festival of Britain alive: hopeful, outward-looking and driven by the belief that culture belongs to everyone.
“From show-stopping classical music, to world-class contemporary art, and unexpected immersive performances – it’s all happening at the Southbank Centre next year.”
Getty ImagesSculptor Anish Kapoor said he was “thrilled” to be returning to the Hayward Gallery after 28 years.
He added: “The Southbank Centre has over the last 75 years been central to London’s cultural life.”
Other highlights of the anniversary programme include a celebration of singer Dame Shirley Bassey, pianist Yuja Wang’s immersive mixed reality experience Playing with Fire, and the centre’s biggest ever sleepover with children’s author Jacqueline Wilson.
Renowned poet Lemn Sissay will lead Imagine the Future, a national project for more than 3,500 schoolchildren who will be invited to share their hopes and dreams for the future through poetry and creative writing, while young dancers from the London School of Contemporary Dance will perform Colossus.
The Goalhanger Southbank Centre Takeover will feature live recordings of some of its most popular podcasts.
Boyle will present You Are Here, which will take place over the May Day bank holiday weekend.
Featuring thousands of participants, the takeover will see audience members invited to explore well-known and hidden spaces across the site.
Boyle said his ambition was “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.”