Estuary

We are delighted to announce that the festival will now run from Saturday 22 May to Sunday 13 June 2021.

Read the announcement here.

Estuary is a festival developed by Metal (South Essex) and Cement Fields (North Kent) as a cultural celebration of the spectacular Thames Estuary region across both the north and south shorelines and on the river itself. The inaugral festival – Estuary 2016 – took place over 16 days in September and October 2016 with a curated programme of art, literature, music and film. A mix of new and existing works pulled together powerful themes resonant to the place, its landscape, history and communities and were presented in significant, historic and unusual venues along the 40 miles of Essex and Kent shorelines.



“A festival that brilliantly matches the intention to the amazing site and constantly keeps culture and the community / social in perfect balance - so much so that I think anyone who encountered it will now think of the festival as much as the place (as part of the place) when the word Estuary comes to mind.” Audience Feedback, Estuary 2016



We are proud to share with you our headline statistics for the reach and response to Estuary 2016:-

● 23.7 million people reached through press and media

● 101,179 live audiences

● 265 artists

● 55 events

● 32 schools / 1157 school pupils

● 16 days of art, literature, music and film

● 7 key venues



Press coverage can be found here

A PDF of the full programme can be downloaded here



Photo credit: Waterborne by French & Mottershead