Live Demos
The future has landed – explore interactive mixed-reality, trailblazing art, live-coding performance, cutting-edge industry demos and DIY AI prototypes.
Swing by and uncover a world of live demonstrations from a standout crew of researchers, artists, creatives and industry insiders.
See what they’ve been cooking up, try out their interactive projects for yourself and get a taste of the weird and wonderful things that are possible when creativity meets technology.
What you can see:
Xtra Reality
Meet William Shakespeare face-to-face, stand before Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn as royal intrigue unfolds, hear Winston Churchill’s iconic words resonate around you, and witness the tension and drama of the gunpowder plot brought vividly to life in mixed reality.
Blending live performance, immersive storytelling and cutting-edge technology, Xtra Reality transforms the world around you into a living historical stage. Guided by a host, you journey through a series of interactive scenes where legendary figures and pivotal moments from British history appear seamlessly within your surroundings.
History is stepping out of the past and into the present.
Hand Thought
Explore the creative potential of robotics within traditional craft practices, and how the two might work in dialogue to make something that is neither entirely handmade nor fully machine fabricated.
Hand Thought is a collaborative research project from Justin Marshall, a digital craft practitioner and Northumbria University professor, and Tavs Jorgensen with his team at the Bridge Studios and the Centre for Print Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol.
Immersive Environments Depicting Future Impacts of Rising Sea Levels
Uncover an alternative way to capture the scale and urgency of sea level rise. Bringing geographic and flood data to life inside video game engines, this project seeks to overcome the limitations of 2D maps, creating immersive visualisations and simulations that more effectively convey the consequences of rising sea levels on the landscapes and communities of the past, present and future.
Initiated by artist and researcher Louis Nixon at Norwich University of the Arts in 2022. Project team: Toby Hills, Louis Nixon, Ben Stopher and Liam Wells.
And plenty more live demos to be announced.
Need to know
Image gallery
Sponsors and partners
For your visit
This event is held at the Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre
The Royal Festival Hall is open six days a week.
Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 11pm
Monday, closed.
Plan your visit
The Royal Festival Hall is home to our largest auditorium as well as The Clore Ballroom, National Poetry Library, Members’ Lounge, Festival Bar & Kitchen, Ballroom Cafe and Skylon restaurant.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
On Level 2 of our Royal Festival Hall you can grab a slice of life by the Thames with drinks and freshly made pizza at our Festival Bar & Kitchen which opens out onto our Riverside Terrace. You can grab a coffee and a slice of freshly made cake from our Ballroom Cafe. Or alternatively enjoy destination dining in the restaurant at Skylon.
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.