London’s King’s Cross welcomes free festival this week

King’s Cross Summer Sounds festival is set to return to the capital this week, with 12 days of music, dance and art running from 15-26 August. King’s Cross industrial-campus-turned-shopping-hub Coal Drops Yard will host music performances from classical to jazz and beyond, as well as dance and inclusion events.

King’s Cross Summer Sounds will offer live concerts every evening from 6:30pm – 8:30pm and from 1pm – 6pm on the festival’s Family Sundays. Produced and directed by freelance producer Martin Collins, this year’s programme has been co-curated with nearby cultural hub Kings Place, as well as local businesses and organisations including English Folk Dance and Song Society, Lafayette, Queer Britain, Voices Radio and Aga Khan Music Programme, each presenting their own events within the festival.

Festival director Martin Collins said: ‘We are so thrilled that King’s Cross Summer Sounds will be returning to Coal Drops Yard again for 2024. Community is at the heart of the festival and we’re so proud to be able to spotlight the local diversity and fantastic talent we have in the area’.

Partners for the 2024 iteration also include opera manager Anthony Whitworth-Jones who presents the festival opening concert. Multi-genre ensemble Unicorn Frequency will present an eclectic mix of musical styles, from folk tunes to classical favourites. Whitworth-Jones also presents an evening of opera, musical theatre and song from English National Opera with soprano Claire Lees, mezzo soprano Georgia Mae Bishop, tenor Innocent Masuku and baritone Patrick Alexander Keefe and director/pianist Chris Hopkins.

As well as days celebrating Brazilian music and Queer culture, other performances to look forward to will include violinist Fenella Humphreys’ reworking of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for chamber ensemble of violin, accordion, double bass and percussion (21 August), An Evening of Songs from the Shows (17 August) with the London Show Choir, a performance from saxophonist YolanDa Brown (25 August) and an exploration of themes of home, displacement, and migration from The Green Room Collective, a group of artists from migrant and refugee backgrounds (23 August).