A musical identity for an open-air festival in the heart of London.

Cubitts Sessions

Cubitt Sessions is an annual open-air music festival of free concerts in the heart of King’s Cross. Held in Coal Drops Yard and Cubitt Square, Cubitt Sessions brings together the world’s finest folk, jazz, classical and experimental musicians to present a diverse and exciting mix of live music over two weeks in August.

Curated with local partners that include the Kings Place arts centre, the music venue, Lafayette, and the English Folk Dance and Song Society in Camden, the festival presents a broad range of eclectic musical styles — from Afro-Latin percussion and brass duets, to evenings of opera and musical theatre — providing an open invitation to visitors of all ages and tastes to be a part of London’s most inclusive free music event.

The vibrant sounds and cultures that are the lifeblood of the event’s music programme are illustrated by the Cubitt Sessions logo, designed to take the form of a dynamic, and ever-changing typographic soundwave.

A festival guide, providing visitors with details of performance dates and times across the two weeks, mirrors the vertical behaviour of the logo in its design. Listings and performance times ‘wayfinding’, along with vibrant duotone artists imagery, adopt the vertical motif of our graphic soundwave.

The impact that Covid-19 had on the live events industry in 2020 meant that a creative (and optimistic) approach would be needed to defy the odds of the live festival’s inevitable cancellation. The result was the creation of ‘Cubitt Sessions Digital’, a series of performances by artists originally booked for the festival made available for free on King’s Cross’ social channels.

Thank–yous & Credits

Artist Programming: Martin Collins at Arts Trust
Event Photography: John Sturrock
Special thanks: Tim Hiskett and David Tod at Argent LLP