ESEA Encounters

Southbank Centre’s new ESEA Encounters series showcases contemporary art and culture from East and Southeast Asia with a summer lineup of performances, music, poetry, literature and art alongside a pop-up market.

The wide-ranging programme strives to offer something for everyone with family events, a 12-hour ‘theatre-meets-rave’, literary discussions, audio visual projects, poetry, a pop-up market and a headline performance at the Royal Festival Hall by the Japanese music icon Haroumi Hosono.

ESEA ENCOUNTERS 2025 LINE-UP

Thu 17 July, Purcell Room, 7pm
Ye Xian - A Story Untold

A new adaptation of the Chinese folk story. Combining contemporary music with Chinese and Western instruments, composer Alex Ho presents an intimate reflection on Ye Xian’s journey between and beyond different cultures.

Fri 18 July, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, 1pm 
Tianzhuo Chen: TRANCE

The visionary Chinese artist Tianzhuo Chen with his Asian Dope Boys collective presents TRANCE - a 12-hour ‘theatre-meets-rave event’ intertwining dance, performance, music, visual art and pop culture. Taking place in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Chen will transform the space into a “symbiotic organism that will allow his ecstatic assemblage of spooky, tentacular, lavish shapes to take place”.

Sat 19 July, Royal Festival Hall, 7pm
Haruomi Hosono 

A founding member of the influential folk-rock act Happy End and part of the pioneering electronic trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, Haroumi Hosono performs an eclectic set of compositions across his five-decade career, with support from electronic and Cuban music band CHO CO PA CO CHO CO QUIN QUIN.

Sat 19 July, Purcell Room and St Paul's Pavilion
ESEA Lit Fest 

A day of literary discussions with speakers including: writer Elaine Castillo, video game producer John Lau, journalist Rebecca Liu, Turner Prize-shortlisted artist Pio Abad, novelist Susan Barker, novelist Tash Aw and poet Will Harris. Additionally, in the St Paul’s Pavilion, the poets Troy Cabida, Nina Mingya Powles and Natalie Linh Bolderston will share their own poems alongside poetry from Southeast Asia that has inspired them in Language and Lineage: Poetry Sharing.

Sat 19 July, Riverside Terrace from 1pm and Clore Ballroom from 7:15pm
Ura Matsuri’s Daylight Ninjas and Ura Matsuri 2025

Celebrating the diverse heritage of the East and Southeast Asian diaspora in the UK, the 2025 edition of the Ura Matsuri evening is hosted by Japanny-A-Granny, serving up pop music headlined by Franks Chickens, live film storytelling by Benshi, classical music on traditional instruments, Chindon Street performance and more. Ura Matsuri will also present Daylight Ninjas on the Riverside Terrace in the afternoon - a family celebration of East and Southeast Asian culture. Entrance is free.

Sat 19 July and Sun 20 July, Clore Ballroom, 12-7pm (Sat) / 11am-6pm (Sun)
Yokimono Japanese Summer Market

Across the weekend, a pop-up Japanese Market takes over the Royal Festival Hall foyers. Expect traditional and contemporary Japanese food, culture, arts and crafts stalls with everything from vintage kimonos, to illustrations and books, on sale, as well as a variety of delicious Japanese treats, including onigiri rice balls, wagashi, mochi and matcha. Entrance is free.

Sun 20 July, Purcell Room at 3pm and 6pm
en Rapport: You to We

The music collective en Rapport presents two audio-visual projects under the title You to We. Part 1 - Ayatori & Lotus Code - explores the themes of being, identity, environment, aloneness and connectivity with a complex layering of captivating visual imagery and evocative live music and sound, created by photographer Yuriko Takagi and musician Ed Jones. Part 2 - No One’s an Island - is led by award-winning jazz artists Kit Downes and Thomas Morgan and explores the uniquely refined sound of Emi Makabe’s shamisen and vocals, set in a richly nuanced melding of contemporary jazz and Japanese folk music.