Welcome to the Forest will be the biggest party Waltham Forest has ever seen and everyone is invited. This year Waltham Forest is the first ever Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture. Our opening show Welcome to the Forest is created in response to the themes of our year celebrating Radicals, Makers and Fellowship. It’s a unique event for all the family designed to celebrate our shared past, present and future in this much loved corner of north east London that we’ve chosen to call home.
Artists Greenaway & Greenaway will present Into The Forest, transforming Waltham Forest Town Hall with a high energy, audio-visual, site-specific film that tells the story of the borough through the eyes of Waltham Forest’s diverse communities. Greenaway & Greenaway have collaborated with Mercury Music Prize-winning musician and producer Talvin Singh on the soundtrack. For a preview, see here. The Town Hall hosts a brand new commission from world-renowned, local electronic duo Addictive TV who present Welcome to the Forest, a unique piece of music created by sampling audio and video of Waltham Forest’s rich and diverse musical talent.
Locally-based international festival curators Continental Drifts will transform Forest Road
into a neon-lit, celebratory winter carnival featuring groups and individuals drawn from the
borough and beyond in partnership with the legendary Gods Own Junkyard. Lloyd Park will be home to Nest, a brand new commission from artists Marshmallow Laser Feast; an epic lighting installation choreographed to a transcendental soundscape created by composer Erland Cooper working with over 1,000 participants from local schools and choirs. International in scale and ambition but telling the local stories of this place, it’s time to say to the world: “Welcome to the Forest”
