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Danny Boyle will turn the Southbank Centre into a celebration of youth culture next May to mark the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, which leaders of the institution hope will “galvanise” the country like the original celebration did in 1951.
You Are Here by Boyle, who was also artistic director for the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony, will involve thousands of participants who will take over the Southbank Centre site celebrating the role the institution “has played in supporting youth culture since its inception”.
The Southbank Centre was at the heart of the 1951 Festival of Britain, which was a celebration of British science, technology and arts thought up by Clement Attlee’s Labour government – with the Royal Festival Hall sitting as the centrepiece.
The Southbank Centre director, Elaine Bedell, told the BBC that the original festival was a “burst of colour” after the pain of the second world war and that organisers of next year’s event were taking that bold vision as their inspiration.
She said: “[The original organisers] felt that after five and a half years of trauma from the second world war, what the nation needed were more optimistic visions of the future through the lens of art and music, but also science and design and technology. So it was an incredibly forward-looking festival.”
Bedell added that the timing was ideal during a time of increasing divisions within society. “We’ve never needed this more,” she said. “At a time when the world feels very polarised, we know that arts and culture is the thing that can bring people together. The Southbank Centre has always been this place of congregation.”
The Guardian reported on the closing of the original festival, which featured a “flag ceremony” as a union flag and two festival flags were lowered while an assembled crowd sung the national anthem, Abide With Me, and Auld Lang Syne.
“We need an injection of positivity now more than any other time in my life,” said Lemn Sissay, who is collaborating with schoolchildren around the country for the event. “We’ll be asking 3,500 young people to imagine the future. It’s perfect timing.”
The original event concluded with “an open-air cabaret with Gracie Fields for its main attraction”, while the Royal Festival Hall was a permanent reminder of the celebrations.
When laying the foundation stone for the Royal Festival Hall, Attlee said it would “show that we’re not just a nation of shopkeepers, but a people who appreciate and practise the arts”.
More than 8 million people attended the 1951 event which, according to the Guardian, became “part of our communal memory, haunting certain stretches of the Thames shore”.
Boyle said the Southbank Centre was “for everyone, like the NHS – a dose of culture, like a vitamin injection, it lifts you”.
The Trainspotting director added that he wants “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”.
There will be a celebration of Benjamin Zephaniah and the composer Steve Reich, while Anish Kapoor returns to the Hayward Gallery after 28 years with a landmark exhibition. Goalhanger podcasts will also host events, and the pianist Yuja Wang will present her immersive Playing With Fire performance.
