Image Credit: Daughters of the Wire photographed by Andre Pattenden.

When Clive Lyttle founded Certain Blacks in 2015, he did so with a simple but radical belief: artists should be free to make the work they want to make, not the work that’s expected of them. It was a philosophy shaped by his own creative journey – from discovering theatre through a touring company visiting his school in Lewisham, to working across music and live performance, before establishing an organisation dedicated to championing artists whose voices and ideas deserve to be seen, heard and celebrated.

We’re catching up with Clive ahead of Ensemble Festival 2026, the seventh edition of Certain Blacks’ free outdoor festival, taking over the Royal Victoria Docks on 25–26 July. Bringing together circus, dance, theatre, spoken word and live music, this year’s programme explores identity, belonging, ecology and collective experience through artists who blur genres and invite audiences to see the world from fresh perspectives. It’s joyful, generous programming that reflects Clive’s enduring commitment to diversity, experimentation and storytelling that speaks to contemporary Britain.

Away from the festival, Clive continues to draw inspiration from London’s creative ecology, recommending the Roundhouse, Camden People’s Theatre, New Diorama Theatre and Soho Theatre as places where adventurous new work continues to thrive.

So, if you’re looking for a summer weekend packed with extraordinary performances, unexpected encounters and big ideas by the Thames, make your way to the Royal Victoria Docks. Ensemble Festival is completely free – simply turn up, explore, and discover why Certain Blacks continues to bring remarkable artists from the margins into the heart of London’s cultural life.

When someone asked where you were from, your answer was wonderfully straightforward: “I was born in Lewisham Hospital… this is where I’m from.” It feels as though that idea of identity and belonging runs through this year’s Ensemble Festival. How has your own story shaped the festival, and why do you think these conversations resonate so strongly in Britain today?

This year’s festival features artists and companies such as Talawa, whose show explores how Black people are viewed in public and deals with the ideas of identity for different men. When I’m asked about my personal identity, I now have to think about how I’m perceived and the assumptions about me that people make. Many shows this year challenge assumptions with Cris the Clown’s piece UFA challenging how we use pubic space and Stick and Stone looking at how we are seen in public.

Image Credit: Brain Fools photographed by Pablo Herrera.

This year’s programme feels joyful, generous and full of shared experiences – from circus and dance to music theatre and public participation. Sociologists use the phrase “collective effervescence” to describe those moments when people come together and feel part of something bigger than themselves. Is that something you’re consciously trying to create through Ensemble Festival, and why might Londoners particularly enjoy more of those moments this summer?

Ensemble Festival is a great place to enjoy art by the water. The Royal Docks provides a fantastic backdrop to performers from around the world and it’s a fitting place to enjoy stories, circus, and art. Daughters Of The Wire, an all-female collective of aerialists, are appearing right by the temporary beach and Garbh created by Shyam Dattani and Mira Salat, a dance piece that reimagines the ancient Gujarati folk dance known as Garba will be performed right in front of the Mayor’s office at Royal Docks.

Ensemble Festival brings together Afrobeat, Gujarati folk traditions, Catalan street theatre, contemporary circus, physical theatre and spoken word – all without feeling like a collection of separate genres. When you’re curating, are you looking first at the themes artists are exploring, or at the conversations that begin to emerge between the works themselves?

It’s a great question. I see storytelling in all performance genres. All are performances at Ensemble Festival have narratives in different ways and this is the importance of great art, from telling stories around the campfire to dance and music, all great art tells stories.

Image Credit: Fragments of Us photographed by Ciara Hillyer.

You’ve spoken about returning to Catalonia each year and your admiration for what you call the region’s distinctive “Catalan Way” of seeing the world. What continues to inspire you about Catalan street theatre, and what do artists like Cris Clown, Nacho Flores and Teatro en Movimiento Callejerx bring to London’s cultural landscape?

Tarriga Festival is a a great champion of outdoor performance from across the EU and provides and showcase of Catalan performance. All the Catalan performances challenge what we expect to see with outdoor performance, adapting in unusual ways and challenging ideas of water use, loneliness and being visible in public. UFA confronts what a clown does , Water Silhouettes our use of water bottles and Nacho brings a sense of fun and weirdness to everyday life

Image Credit: Stick and Stone photographed by Jason Pegg.

Across works exploring identity, ecology, female empowerment, ancestry and public space, Ensemble Festival suggests that outdoor performance can be both entertaining and thought-provoking. Looking beyond this summer, what are your hopes for the relationship between society and the arts in London – and across the UK? What role can festivals like Ensemble play in helping us imagine a more connected, confident and compassionate future?

Great art can be both a mirror and a dynamo. A mirror on our world and a dynamo for change. I keep this in mind when developing programmes of work which shows out world, with all its faults, and suggest how we change things. For example, the piece Water Silhouettes requires 400 plastic bottles for its performance, and the Certain Blacks team is currently collecting these wherever we can, but few people recycle so it’s been tough and shows how disposable things are.

Image Credit: The Torch Production.

Certain Blacks has always championed artists whose work crosses borders – geographically, culturally and artistically. Looking ahead, where do you hope Certain Blacks and Ensemble Festival will be in five years’ time? Are there new partnerships, communities or conversations you’re particularly excited to develop?

Over the next five years we would love to develop both the Macro side of Certain Blacks developing our national and international work and the Micro – supporting our local arts development in Newham and The Royal Docks. An example of our larger work would be our international programme of circus and theatre from Europe, Africa and New Zealand. Along with this Certain Blacks will develop local shows such as Pump House Pulse, a small intimate jazz venue presenting the best in modern music and our work with Creative Newham supporting East London artists.

Away from Ensemble Festival, which four London cultural spaces or creative communities are inspiring you right now? Tell us why they’re special to you – and why Run Riot readers should make time to experience them for themselves.

The Roundhouse – love their music and performance programme.

Camden People’s Theatre – great shows and supporters of emerging artists.

New Diorama Theatre – great development programme of new work.

Soho Theatre – great place to see Edinburgh previews!!

Clive Lyttle is the founder and Artistic Director of Certain Blacks. @certainblacks

Find Clive at @lyttle188

Certain Blacks presents
Ensemble Festival
Royal Victoria Docks,
London, E16 1FA
Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 July, 12pm – 8pm
Info (it’s FREE) → certainblacks.com