Freestage, 12pm-5.30pm

Relax, chill and connect with your friends and other Young Barbican members. There’ll be chairs and bean bags, plus a collage activity to get creative with!

Fountain Room Foyer, 12pm-5pm

Need the perfect headshot for your portfolio or profile? Come & have your portrait taken by Anthony Comber-Badu. Anthony is a writer, photographer & filmmaker who has worked with Tate, National Portrait Gallery, BBC & BFI.
Ticket holders queue on the day.

Fountain Room, 12.30-2.30pm

Join drag artists Birdcage, Cabbage the Clown and Weedle Koichiii, alongside performance artist Joy Kincaid, to explore the form(less-ness) of contemporary drag. Create different looks through makeup, design your own drag audio piece, and take part in  autoethnographic artistic explorations, all whilst discussing the future of queer performance. 
Capacity is 40 people. Ticket holders sign up on the day.

Curve Gallery, 1pm

Join RESOLVE Collective for an exclusive tour to consider radical ideas for organising both within and without institutions in their latest exhibition them’s the breaks.

You’re invited to become a part of the art, built on site using objects foraged from London’s cultural institutions and exhibitions. As part of the large scale installation, RESOLVE Collective use technology usually found in structural engineering to visualise what’s happening inside the Barbican's concrete structure: using the cracks that naturally occur over time in a building as prompts for how we consider the structural decline of our systems, institutions, and buildings.

Level G Studio, 1.30pm-4pm

Reps from organisations that specialise in offering mentoring and learning programmes for young people will be on-hand to talk to you about how they can support your career development.

Fountain Room, 3pm-4pm & 4.30-5.30pm

Haute Flame is known for making decadent statement candles, and in this workshop they will take you through the steps you'll need to master making your own unique candle to take home.
Capacity is 20 people per session. Ticket holders sign up on the day. 
Please note that candles will need approximately 45-60 mins to set before you can take them away.

Level G, 5.30-6pm

Over 50 young drummers will take over Barbican’s Level G for an epic performance, guaranteed to bring some energy to your Saturday afternoon. Drum Works uses drumming as a tool to inspire creativity, build social cohesion and empower young people to direct their own futures. The massed band will include Drum Heads alongside Drum Works participants from Tower Hamlets, Newham and Barking & Dagenham.

Freestage, 6pm

Nok Cultural Ensemble centres diverse Afro-diasporic percussive traditions, drawing on their own collective heritage - from Nigeria and Mauritius to St Kitt and the UK.

The Nok Cultural Ensemble builds on the legacy of cultural ensemble bands from 1960’s West Africa. Inspired by Pan- African liberation movements, these groups symbolised self determination and black pride.

The line-up includes:

Zarak (Fula Flute, Percussion)
Ras Asheber (Conch, Djembe)
Watusi 87 (Vocals, Djembe)
Dwayne Kilvington (Dundun, Congas)
Edward Wakili-Hick (Drum kit, MPC)
Joseph Deenmamode (Ravanne)

Conservatory, 12-9pm

The climate crisis and global pandemic have made us acutely aware of the air around us. Artist Sam Winston has worked with groups of young people to explore the air we breathe and where it comes from. Ink drawings created by young people were gathered together to make a large-scale piece displayed in the Conservatory alongside Sam Winston’s work.

You are invited to create your own artistic response as well. Pick up a postcard from a member of staff, watch the film to learn about Sam’s process, and listen to the audio, which will guide you through the activity. Amongst the calm of the plants, take a moment to draw, reflect, and breathe. You are advised to bring your own headphones and a smartphone to access the audio.

Conservatory Terrace, 1-2pm and 3.30-4.30pm

Take part in a Yoga Nidra session, facilitated by poet and yoga teacher Simran Uppal. You’ll be gently led into a deeply restful space at the edge of sleep for a dreamy, easy, richly creative meditation experience. Yoga Nidra is a gentle practice, with minimal movement involved. Suitable for all levels. Mats, beanbags, and blankets will be provided. There is space for wheelchair users.
Capacity is 25 people per session. Ticket holders sign up on the day. 

Conservatory Terrace, 2-3pm and 4.30-5.30pm

Drawing is a great way to deal with complexity without the need to control it. For millennia, artists have moved questions out of their heads and into their hands. In this workshop artist Sam Winston will offer new ways to explore our built environments as well as sharing some creative strategies he employs in the studio. No prior artistic experience necessary, these workshops are relaxed and playful.

Capacity is 25 people per session. Ticket holders sign up on the day. 

Conservatory Well, 3pm-3.30pm

Alice Boyd presents her debut EP From The Understory, an exploration of our evolutionary journey and interconnectedness with the biosphere. Created as part of Alice's artist residency at the Eden Project - the world's largest indoor rainforest - this collection of songs tells the story of civilisation at a tipping point.

Alice Boyd’s work uses vocal harmony, field recordings and electronics to tell stories about the world around us. She has worked with Eden Project, Wellcome Collection, Donmar Warehouse and more. 

Alice will be joined by musicians Dazey, zha and Jacob Norris and writer Natasha Kaeda.

Garden Room, 7.30pm 

Zakia is a broadcaster, writer and DJ from London with a passion for music, arts, mental health and history. She regularly produces and presents radio documentaries and podcasts for platforms including BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Tate, and Boiler Room and has explored a wide range of topics, from Caribbean ancestral drumming, to schizophrenia and intergenerational trauma, to improvisation in the arts.

Alongside audio production, Zakia is an enthusiastic and respected collector and sharer of music. Zakia has a 
weekly and widely popular show on NTS Radio, called Questing w/ Zakia, where she interviews
guests and plays cosmic music from across the globe. As a DJ, Zakia has performed at esteemed clubs
and festivals in London and abroad, including the likes of Dekmantel, Dimensions, We Out Here, GALA,
XOYO, Brilliant Corners, Gorilla, Jazz Cafe and Maiden Voyage.

Garden Room, 9pm 

Faisal Salah, known by his stage name FACESOUL is a London-based Somali artist. His spellbounding album YRSA is raw and honest account from a period of personal grief and solitude after the passing of a dear friend in an accident during the recording period. It transformed the project into a creative documentation of his emotional reconnection himself and the journey home after losing a loved one. It celebrates and honours vulnerability, exploring themes of grief, sorrow, joy, love, family and the human experience.

FACESOUL is one of those rare artists whose words and sounds speak directly to your soul. 

 “For me authenticity has to be the first step. Always. And that’s why I decided to just use my voice, to symbolically display my truth bare; in a way that’s not hidden behind any scaffolding or props, I was always taught come as you are to life as it is and, in that you are enough.”
 

Clubstage, 2.30pm-4.30pm

UK-based home and grown Singer/Dancer JUM3E is bringing energy and vibes by supporting the youth in their exploration of achieving mindfulness and wellness through movement. You can expect a day of fun and positive vibes for all people of all abilities and from varying backgrounds. This extravaganza will culminate in a Movement Workshop for All and then participants will be given the opportunity to share their expression in a Flash Mob-esque style performance! All moving to music in one accord. Come and join us, we want you to experience the Euphoric Future Feeling of Movement. Beginners are welcome!

Capacity is 50 people. Ticket holders sign up on the day.

Clubstage, 5.30pm

Come and witness a public flashmob, movement-based performance in the heart of the Barbican!

Pit Theatre, 7.30pm

Advaita is a synergy of movement, music and visual effects performance by artist and performer Chagall. Using a motion capture suit and sensor enabled gloves she turns her full body into an instrument and creates a harmony between live music, technology and movement. The show will be followed by an audience Q&A.

About Chagall

Singer/producer/computer nerd Chagall pushes the boundaries with tech-heavy live shows that add a captivating physicality and human intimacy to electronic music. Every performance by Chagall is a spectacular audio-visual experience that inspires and connects. Her upcoming album ‘Unlocked’ brings together 80s synth pop, alt-R&B and swelling basses in a digital yet poetic dream world.

Pit Theatre, 9pm

The Remedy takes you on a journey spanning 15 years, told through comedy, poetry, story and song. It is a story of hope, against the odds. This is a powerful and breathtaking one-person show, with a unique approach to storytelling.

The show will be followed by an audience Q&A.

About Reeta Loi

Reeta Loi is a Storyteller. You may have heard their powerful latest track Remedy, seen their ground-breaking VICE documentary, watched their transformative TED talks or read their work in GAY TIMES. Now see them live bringing together comedy, poetry, story and song in their uplifting new show The Remedy.