Shoreditch Town Hall has announced the return of Summer in The Ditch for 2026, bringing a vibrant line-up of queer, camp and experimental live performance to its basement space this July.
Now in its third year, the festival has become a staple of the venue’s programme, showcasing emerging artists through a series of double bills designed to push creative boundaries.
Running from 9 to 18 July, the programme opens with House of Tríus’ Kiki with Corí, described as an evening of “naughty and nude cabaret mayhem”, alongside Lachlan Werner’s Sleeper Hit, a surreal “ventriloquial hypnotherapy session” exploring queer absurdity and hidden fears.
Across the festival, audiences can expect a diverse mix of performance styles, from Kate Newman’s punk-inspired A Womb of One’s Own tackling medical misogyny and capitalism, to Trainwreck by Simone French and TomYumSim, a chaotic satire influenced by infamous immersive disasters and AI culture.
Other highlights include Booted Rivalry, a butch 4 butch cabaret romance, Grace Quigley’s On Our Backs, and Riss Obolensky’s Stinky Little Pilgrim, alongside operatic works Operotica: Lovers in Every Lifetime and Pteridomania.
The festival closes with Open your mouth, it’s snowing by Tallulah and Mirabelle Haddon, a multisensory piece exploring intimacy, transformation and desire through live image-making.
As part of the expanded programme, Shoreditch Town Hall will also host an Open Mic Night, offering artists the chance to test new material in front of a live audience.
Ellie Browning, Head of Cultural Programme, said: “We’re very excited to announce the 2026 Summer in The Ditch programme. Shaped inherently by the artists who apply to take part, this year’s line-up features a butch Heated Rivalry night, punk-inspired performance art exploring medical misogyny, satirical responses to commercial immersive experiences and the rise of AI, and an experimental queer opera double bill.
Now in its third year, the programme has continued to build momentum, with more than double the number of applications than last year. In response we’ve expanded the programme to include a new Open Mic event, so that anyone who wants to try out material in front of an audience has the opportunity to. We’re looking forward to the return of artists from previous years trying new material and the new partnerships we’re building with this programme
Summer in the Ditch has become not only a platform for supporting new experimental performance, but with two projects, Queer Noise and DYKE Systems Ltd., going on to be presented in our main spaces with guaranteed artist fees attached, its proof that the platform is a productive way for us to meet a wider group of artists, performance and ideas to continue to support and present as part of our curated programme. For audiences, Summer in the Ditch is an invitation to take a chance on new and experimental work, and we hope you’ll embrace that sense of risk and discovery alongside us. We can’t wait to welcome you!”
Previous participants Fag Packet added: “The best thing about performing at Summer in the Ditch was the level of support that you receive from Shoreditch Town Hall. It was a really great opportunity for us to put something on its feet and having support from a venue, not just in terms of space but in terms of tech support, marketing support, support from producers and getting people through the door, really enabled our work to be seen for the first time – which was amazing!
Since performing at Summer in the Ditch, we have taken our show to the Edinburgh Fringe and are currently on our UK tour which is really exciting! It was from having spaces like Summer in the Ditch that gave us that initial platform to test stuff out.”
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
