East End to celebrate its creative side

Institutions including the Barbican, Whitechapel Gallery, Hackney Empire, Museum of London, Arcola Theatre and the Vortex Jazz Club will present more than 400 events from 6 to 11 March.

The celebration, simply called East, follows a prototype festival last year which proved to be a massive success.

Whitechapel Gallery director Iwona Blazwick said: "If it was Montmartre in 1900s Paris and Soho in New York in the Seventies, the East End at the beginning of the 21st century is a very dynamic cultural hub. There's a critical mass.

"There is probably more cultural activity here than anywhere in the world. East as an event telescopes it into one week."

She said the collaboration by more than 50 organisations made sense in enabling them to share audience information.

Festival highlights include performances by reggae dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and comedian Shazia Mirza.

The Whitechapel Gallery will present an exhibition by Cornelia Parker, whose work has included the charred remains of an exploded garden shed.

Matt's Gallery and the Parasol Unit will show work by former Turner Prize nominees Willie Doherty and Darren Almond respectively. The Barbican is reviving the Theatre Royal Stratford East's hit reggae musical The Harder They Come, inspired by the Jimmy Cliff film.

The Geffrye Museum and Hackney Museum will host exhibitions on the history of east London, including the excavated remains of the city's only Roman amphitheatre.

Other events embrace film, food and fashion. The Bird's Eye View festival showcases work by women film-makers. Restaurants such as St John's and the Rivington Bar and Grill will put on festival menus and the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane will present a catwalk show of young designer fashion.

Graham Sheffield, artistic director of the Barbican, said the festival was set to become part of the build-up to the 2012 Olympics. "It's harnessing the whole power of this sector and focusing people's thoughts on 2012 through this open-access social-cultural project," he added.

Mayor Ken Livingstone welcomed East, saying: "East London, with its rich past and present, has long been a creative hotbed."