Bradley Hemmings: Curating a festival

The opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London was heralded as one of the most spectacular and successful outdoor theatrical events in the world, watched by more than 3.8 billion people. The man behind it was Bradley Hemmings. Bradley is a festival director, and every year is responsible for putting on the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival (GDIF) in London. Now in its 27th year, he tells Anna Bailey about the key elements that make for a great and accessible outdoor event. Follow Bradley as he puts together the line-up for this year’s festival and coordinates the opening night. Collaborating with Jenny Sealey, his co-producer of the Paralympic Games, and with Peter Hudson, the artistic director behind Charon, a 32-foot-high rotating zoetrope as seen at The Burning Man Festival in America, and now one of the main attractions for this year’s GDIF in London.