A mean time in Greenwich

You take your chances with free festivals. Greenwich + Docklands' four-day extravaganza promises great things, however. Seventeen programmes of outdoor theatre, dance, aerial performance, circus stunts, fireworks and music by some of the world's best street companies are about to crowd out the public spaces of Woolwich, Greenwich and Docklands.

If this is starting to sound like the Edinburgh Festival without the good bits, think again. There will be some stilts and silly costumes, but the emphasis is on large-scale spectacle.

Highlights include French abseilers, Les Passagers, filling out a 16- metre square canvas at O2 with a Chinese landscape to artist Huang Yan's design. The dance company Srishti are to perform their football show, Bend It, at Canary Wharf, with giant Subbuteo men and slo-mo aerial replays.

Several of Greenwich's historic sites also host energetic events: The Medal Ceremony at Cutty Sark Gardens has performers on four-metre swaying poles; in Greenwich Park, the area outside the new Planetarium is transformed into an African marketplace; and at the Old Royal Naval College, an acrobatic duet is played out in giant turning wheels.

Most curious is Run!, at the National Maritime Museum, a mysterious mass event involving 60 local schools (audience limited to 5,000) that puts the 2012 Olympics on the agenda, something close to the hearts of people in this part of London.

The festival kicks off tonight (7pm-9.30pm) with Fanfare in Wool-wich's Beresford Square, which aims for a camp carnival feel with half a dozen French street theatre companies doing their thing. This one's a giant caterpillar, men in pink suits kind of affair but don't let that put you off.

Until Sunday. For details and times of events: 020 8305 1818 or www.festival.org