London Climate Change Festival

A note from our founder…

It started on New Year’s Eve, 2019.

I remember sitting down and writing to two people I deeply admire—Wayne Sleep and David Suchet—sharing an idea that had been growing in me: to create the London Climate Change Festival. A space where the arts could meet the climate conversation, where emotion and expression could sit alongside science and urgency.

I asked if they would join me as patrons.

They both said yes.

For nine months, I worked to bring the Festival to life—gathering artists, scientists, thinkers, and activists, all united by the belief that creativity can help us connect more deeply to the challenges facing our planet.

And then, just as we were ready to begin, the world stopped.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to cancel the Festival. It was a challenging moment—but also a defining one. Because instead of stepping back, we chose to adapt.

The London Coliseum offered us a way forward: a one-night concert. But as lockdown deepened, even that evolved into something entirely different—a filmed performance, created without an audience over three extraordinary days.

We called it Song for Nature.

What emerged was something I will never forget. People from across disciplines came together—dancers, musicians, actors, scientists, journalists, activists—each bringing their voice, their craft, and their care for the world we share. It was later broadcast on Sky Arts, allowing us to reach audiences far beyond the theatre walls.

Alongside this, we made sure that the Festival’s scientific and educational core continued. The talks and lectures we had planned found a home online—ensuring that knowledge, insight, and expertise remained accessible during a time when connection mattered more than ever.

Then, as we began to emerge from those quiet years, something new took shape.

In 2023, I created the Beautiful World Cabaret. I wanted to explore a different way of engaging people—a way that held joy and seriousness in the same breath. Through music, storytelling, humour, and conversation, we invited audiences not only to think about the climate crisis, but to feel it—and to feel their place within the solution.

The response was overwhelming.

We took the cabaret to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it grew, evolved, and welcomed new collaborators—musicians, dancers, poets, filmmakers. We even began gathering by the sea in Newhaven, creating spaces for open, honest climate conversations in the early evening light.

Back in London, performances sold out and the work deepened.

What excites me most is how the idea has expanded beyond me. The Beautiful World Cabaret is now something other artists can interpret in their own way—bringing their voices, their audiences, and their creativity into this shared conversation. It has become a living, evolving platform.

In 2025, this spirit carried us into a series of cabarets at the iconic Crazy Coqs, followed by a transfer to the Charing Cross Theatre. Each performance brought new artists, new perspectives, and new energy.

And the journey continues to grow—from intimate cabarets to larger concerts, from London to festivals across the UK.

What began as a single idea has become a collective movement.

I have always believed that the arts have a unique power—not just to inform, but to move us. To bring us closer. To remind us what we love, and therefore what we must protect.

The London Climate Change Festival exists to hold that space.

To bring people together.
To tell stories that matter.
And to inspire meaningful change—through connection, creativity, and hope.

This is only the beginning.

-Janie Dee