The CMCI Winter Festival is back for the 4th year, celebrating creativity, the arts, and human expression at King’s College London.

The Winter Festival is an exemplary network of time, energy and immense organisation, mastered across our three-year degree, and put into practice, showcasing 13 unique events and exhibitions across the three-day festival on 17th to the 19th of December.

Previous festivals have covered a beautifully wide range of themes, creative mediums and topics! From film and video documentaries about cultural immigration experiences to interactive activities about childhood fun, we’ve investigated personal explorations of creativity, identity, and youth. Wanting to continue with the amazing legacy for students before us, we’ve been preparing this year’s theme around issues important to the student body and provided the title project, The Art of Empowerment - Empowering Culture, Inspiring Change.

Inspired by our cohort and the ideas of The Art of…, this theme allows a diverse connection of what empowerment can mean in different contexts, to different people. Culture, identity, community, sustainability, heritage, and many more discussions will be held in celebration of our festival space. Interested in the combination of Chinese opera and mythology, or the effects of AI usage on water consumption? Or even just looking to learn about a brand new topic, with hands-on crafts and immersive experience? Sounds like you should head on down!

Opening Ceremony

Join us on 16 December for the Opening Ceremony in Bush House's 8th Floor North Wing. We’ll be exploring the journey of the creative hero with guest performances from GKT Musical Theatre, KCL Bhangra, and more. Please note that the Opening Ceremony is only for CMCI staff and students (and a few guest speakers along the way), so RSVP below to guarantee your entry.

• Students can RSVP at this link here.
• Staff can RSVP at this link here.

List of events

Wednesday 17 December

Butterfly Dream

Through mirrors, butterflies, and fractured light, Butterfly Dream is an immersive contemporary art exhibition inspired by the philosophies of Zhuangzi and the writings of Franz Kafka. Find tickets here.

Everyday Archive

Spotlighting lost voices and forgotten practices, Everyday Archive reconnects and revives the beauty of folk culture that makes us who we are, wherever we are. Find tickets here.

Her Qipao

Exploring the evolving meanings of the Qipao, Her Qipao traces how this iconic garment has reflected and reshaped Chinese femininity across a century of transformation through a series of mini-exhibitions. Find tickets here.

Re-Blue It: Frozen Plastic Interactive Installation Exhibition

An ocean of fragments, a sea of futures — you rescue what plastic tried to silence, and the water remembers every touch of kindness. Join Re Blue lt as they build a bridge between environmental advocates, artists, scholars, and the public. Find tickets here.

(R)Evolution Fashion

Unravel the threads of resistance in (R)evolution Fashion: an immersive exploration of women’s style as protest, revisiting clothing as a site of defiance and co-creating its contemporary afterlives. Find tickets here.

Thursday 18 December

Echoes of the Dance Floor

Blurring the lines between exhibition and club, Echoes of the Dance Floor invites you to experience the dance floor as an immersive tribute to the unity of club culture in a time of disconnection and fading nightlife. Find tickets here.

EveryBody Knows

This exhibition emerges from a place of care, and at its heart beats hope. With a centre on women who suffer with endometriosis, PMDD and PCOS — EveryBody Knows focuses particularly on those who have long been and continue to be underrepresented. Find tickets here.

Sonic Threads

Sonic Threads harmonises fashion, music, and sustainability into one creative and immersive experience. Our event is for young creatives, fashion and music lovers, and conscious consumers seeking to experience style with purpose. Find tickets here.

The Blue Memories

The Blue Memories is a journey exploring China’s intangible cultural heritage — Dian Cui. From a cultural sustainability perspective, we reimagined Dian Cui craft techniques not only as symbols of intangible cultural heritage but also as links between history and modernity. Find tickets here.

Friday 19 December

A Message To Home (@houseofn1ne) -

A Message to Home is an inclusive exhibition for reflection, belonging, and creativity, inviting public discourse on the meaning of ‘home’. Find tickets here.

Data Overflow (@dataoverflow_cmci) -

Dive into the true cost of the Generative AI revolution at Data Overflow — an immersive exhibit on GenAI’s impact on water consumption. Find tickets here.

Nuo Opera - The Art of Renewal (@nineguardians) -

Interactive exhibition & workshop exploring Nuo Opera art through mask, dance & costume — a journey of blessing, renewal & empowerment. Find tickets here.

Start! Party Day in Sky’s Bedroom (@sky_partyday_1219) -

An immersive bedroom party: East Asian young women’s exploration and empowerment of gender identity through storytelling and interactive workshop. Find tickets here.