The Barbican will host Playgrounds’ In Motion Festival for a second consecutive year on 9th-10th October 2025. Following a highly successful debut in 2024, the festival will expand its footprint within the venue, bringing together an even larger audience to celebrate the latest in animation, motion design, and cutting-edge digital creativity.
Building on the success of the 2024 edition, the 2025 event is expected to host more than 2,000 delegates per day in the Barbican Hall, Cinema 1, and across the foyers. In addition to world-class talks from leading industry figures, next year’s festival will introduce new interactive activations, networking spaces, and engagement pieces across the venue, ensuring an even more immersive and dynamic experience.
The decision to return to the Barbican is a testament to the strong partnership approach between Playgrounds and the venue’s expert events and account management teams. From seamless planning and delivery to the highly skilled technical production team, the Barbican exceeded expectations in 2024, creating a conference that was deeply aligned to the creative vision of Playgrounds.
“The Barbican is not just a venue—it’s an icon. Next to an amazing location, their team has been instrumental in making In Motion an outstanding experience for both speakers and attendees. The professionalism, support, and expertise of their technical and events teams made it an easy decision for us to return in 2025,” said Leon van Rooij from Playgrounds.
A Bigger, Bolder 2025 Edition
With the festival’s footprint expanding across multiple spaces, attendees can expect:
- More World-Class Content – Inspirational talks from some of the most influential figures in motion design, animation, and digital art.
- New Interactive Activations – Engaging experiences within the foyers and networking areas, designed to immerse attendees in the world of motion creativity.
“We are delighted to welcome Playgrounds’ In Motion Festival back to the Barbican in 2025,” said Glenn Mainwaring, Business Development Manager at Barbican. “This event is a natural fit for the Barbican, aligning perfectly with our commitment to championing the creative industries and fostering innovation. We look forward to building on our successful collaboration and delivering an even more impactful experience next year.”
For more information about Playgrounds’ In Motion Festival 2025, visit https://weareplaygrounds.nl.
About Barbican Business Events
The Barbican is one of the world’s leading conference and international arts venues. Located in the City of London, it is capable of holding meetings from 10-2,000 delegates in its fully equipped concert hall, theatres, conference suites and boardrooms. Barbican Business Events brings together the venue’s expertise in the arts and corporate meetings.
Built as part of London’s Barbican development and officially opened in March 1982 by HM Queen Elizabeth, unlike many other venues, Barbican was specifically built with the dual purpose of holding conferences and arts events presenting a diverse range of art, music, theatre, dance, film and creative learning.
The Barbican’s Business Events team contributes to the venue’s future success. To make the most of the Barbican’s rich culture and heritage, Barbican Business Events was created to bring together their expertise in three very different areas – the arts, creative learning and corporate business. This approach to corporate events is based on stronger, more in-depth partnerships with their artistic, creative learning and development teams in order to bring more creativity and rich content to events.
About the Barbican
The Barbican is a catalyst for creativity, sparking possibilities for artists, audiences, and communities. We showcase the most exciting art from around the world, pushing traditional artistic boundaries to entertain and inspire millions of people, create connections, provoke debate, and reflect the world we live in.
We are an international arts and events centre rooted firmly in our own neighbourhood, collaborating with local communities and putting the City of London on the map as a destination for everybody. Central to our purpose is supporting emerging talent and shaping opportunities that will accelerate the next generation of creatives.
As a not-for-profit, we rely on the generosity of individuals and organisations, including our principal funder the City of London Corporation. Every ticket purchased, donation made, and pound earned supports our arts and learning programme and enables the widest possible range of people to experience the joy of the arts.
Opened in 1982, the Barbican is a unique and audacious building, recognised globally as an architectural icon. As well as our theatres, galleries, concert halls and cinemas, we have a large conservatory with over 1,500 species of plants and trees, a library, conference facilities, public and community spaces, restaurants, bars, and a picturesque lakeside oasis.
