Towering puppets, accompanied by live percussion and dynamic moving sculptures, will traverse a west London street, offering a vibrant celebration of South Asian artistic, musical, and craft traditions.
The “Giants on the Move” parade is scheduled to take place along Exhibition Road in South Kensington on Saturday and Sunday.
Serendipity ArtsAccording to organisers Serendipity Arts, the event draws inspiration from India’s rich heritage of artisanal puppet-making, offering “an immersive celebration of movement, participation and public art.”
This spectacle is part of the broader Great Exhibition Road Festival, an annual free event that celebrates science. This year’s festival commemorates the 175th anniversary of the Great Exhibition, a landmark event that previously showcased the industrial and cultural prowess of the United Kingdom and other nations to a global audience.
Serendipity ArtsThe direction of the event is helmed by Dadi Pudumjee, a pivotal figure in Indian puppetry, who brings over five decades of experience across diverse forms including traditional Indian puppetry, object theatre, masks, projection, and music.
Pudumjee’s prolific career includes founding the Ishara Puppet Theatre in 1986 and the Ishara International Puppet Festival in 2001. His work has been showcased internationally across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Australia.
His contributions to the arts have been recognised with prestigious accolades such as the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1992 and the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honours, in 2011. He has also served as the president of UNIMA International, the global governing body for puppetry.
Serendipity Arts operates as a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting artists in South Asia and beyond, across visual arts, music, theatre, dance, and design. Its annual festival in Goa, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in December, has evolved into the most significant multidisciplinary arts event in South Asia.
The Great Exhibition Road Festival is taking place from 12:00 to 18:00 BST on 6 and 7 June. The “Giants on the Move” procession will occur daily at 12:45 and 15:15. All festival events are free to attend.
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Business Style Takeaway: Events like “Giants on the Move” highlight the growing global appreciation for traditional art forms as vehicles for cultural expression and economic opportunity. Brands and businesses seeking to connect with diverse, international audiences would benefit from embracing and authentically integrating such rich cultural narratives into their strategies, moving beyond superficial representation to genuine engagement.
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