We are entering that ‘festival season’ time of year when we can enjoy the arts outdoors on our streets and in our green spaces in (hopefully) the warmer weather.

I always rather love a weekend of festivities curated by the Culture Croydon team (think of Croydon Gladi Gladi, The Walnut Fair, A Very Croydon Christmas and of course the London Borough of Culture finale – to name just a few from recent years).

Culture Croydon have been running a series of events connected with The National Gallery: Art On Your Doorstep programme, and this weekend’s ‘Surprised! Festival’ has been inspired by Henri Rousseau’s tiger painting of the same name, a replica of which currently resides in The Whitgift Centre (in the Square near Waterstones).

Billed as a ‘weekend celebrating Asian arts, creativity and community’ we can expect sounds from across the continent filling our town centre with live music, a programme of dance,  large-scale puppetry (who’s not a fan of this?), a variety of arts and crafts workshops, as well as food stalls.

Musician and composer, Shri Sriram (of Drum the Bass) has curated the weekend’s music programme, and dancer and choreographer Anusha Subramanyam (of Beeja Dance) has shaped the dance side of things.

We asked Caterina Loriggio from the Croydon Culture team to tell us a bit more about the festival: ‘It has been fantastic to work with Shri and Anusha pulling together this wonderful weekend programme. We obviously haven’t been able to find something from every corner of Asia, but so many communities and cultures are represented that I am sure audiences are going to find something new as well as enjoy some old favourites. It’s going to be really exciting on North End with a bandstand, a Vietnamese Lion, giant puppets and DJ sets which I hope will have Croydonians dancing in the street, and the Whitgift dance and craft programmes are both extraordinary. It’s definitely one not to miss.’

A taster of the programme to whet your appetites is below, but you can download detailed listings for each day from the Culture Croydon ‘Surprised!’ website page.

Street Performances (Croydon’s North End)

A mix of roaming performances on North End and Whitgift Square, including:

• Sonia Sabri Company – The Peacock & The Princess
  An outdoor walkabout inspired by Indian and Persian miniature painting.
• Inspirate – Ancient Giants
  Large-scale puppets retelling the South Asian epic battle between Hanuman the Monkey God and Ravana the Demon King.
• Vietnamese Family Partnership – Vietnamese Lion Dance
  Traditional lion mask and costume performance, with family workshops to try on the costume and learn the dance.
• Bollywood Brass Band
  A pioneering brass band roaming North End with high energy Bollywood hits and irresistibly danceable rhythms.

Music (North End Bandstand)

Curated by Shri Sriram and Drum the Bass, the music programme spans traditions and contemporary sounds, featuring:

• The Sound of China
• Hengām Ensemble performing Iranian classical music
• Djanan Turan Quartet
• DJ Bobby Friction (TV & BBC Radio Presenter) with a set celebrating British Asian and South Asian music across the decades

Dance (Whitgift Square Stage)

Curated by Anusha Subramanyam and Beeja Dance Company, the dance stage showcases traditions from across Asia, including:

• Chinese Fan Dance (UK China Performing Arts)
• Chhau Tiger Dance (Rhythmotion)
• Moroccan and Turkish dance
• Flamenco–Bharatanatyam fusion (Fin de Fiesta) blending Spanish and South Indian styles
• Balinese and Sri Lankan masked dance

Workshops (North Square)

All workshops are free and 2 hours long, offering hands-on activities for all ages:

• Origami
• Chinese knotting
• Mask making
• Anatolian Tile Painting
• Henna hand painting
• Vietnamese Lion Dance workshop
• Balinese dance workshop (Lila Bawa)

By the way, we are loving Skye Baker’s artwork for the event (below right).

‘Surprised! Festival’ takes place this weekend, Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 May 2026, from 12pm to 6pm in the Whitgift Centre and North End, Croydon. All events are free.

There are still a couple more events planned in the Art On Your Doorstep programme, an art fair in June and a Circus weekend in July. Head over to the Culture Croydon website to find out more.

Images courtesy of Culture Croydon: header image – Beeja Dance at Croydon Harvest by Matt Alexander; second image – Padmini and Sivaji, Global Grooves; third image – Hanuman the Monkey God, Just So, by Anna Hornby; fourth image – Surprised! by Henri Rousseau in Whitgift Square, Croydon – Part of National Gallery Art On Your Doorstep , by Glenn Foster.

Posted by Julia