Longplayer Live
Roundhouse Three Sixty
Main Space
Thu 14 Nov 24 10am General Public Booking
Wed 13 Nov 24 10am Advance Priority Booking for Champion, Icon and Legend members
Wed 13 Nov 24 2pm Priority Booking for all members
Starts: 7.20am
Ends: Midnight
Audiences can stay for as long as they like to experience Longplayer between entry and end times
Age 30 or under?
Get £5 tickets here while they last
*Please note: you may be asked to present ID as proof of age. Anyone over the age of 30 will be refused entry if attempting to enter on a £5 30 or Under ticket.
30 or Under tickets must be purchased in a separate transaction to full price tickets. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Fees & Age Guidance
Fees are 6% + a £2 restoration levy per ticket
Under-16s to be accompanied by an adult, children under 5 do not require a ticket
This event is digitally ticketed.
You can access your ticket once purchased by logging in to your ticket wallet with your Roundhouse account login details. For more information, see our FAQs.
Please note: if you booked via another ticket agent and are expecting to receive digital tickets, you will receive instructions on how to access your tickets approximately 24 hours before the show.
Access to Longpoem is included as part of Longplayer tickets where space allows. Please note capacity for Longpoem is limited and access will be granted on a first come first served basis.
Spend one unique day with Longplayer, live at the Roundhouse.
A 1000-year-long piece of music, Longplayer has been playing continuously since the first moments of this millennium and is composed to continue until the final moments of the next.
On 5th April 2025, in Longplayer’s 25th anniversary year, Longplayer returns to the Roundhouse for a performance of the 1000-minute section of its score, as written for that particular time and date, from 7.20am to midnight.
Longplayer’s duration means that, given the unknowability of the future, its score was written so as to be independent of any one technology. For most of its life it has been performed by computers, while its caretakers, the Longplayer Trust, explore alternatives which have included the use of the human voice, vinyl records, code, a beam of light and, as first heard at the Roundhouse in 2009, live performance by musicians.
Akin to what Longplayer’s composer, Jem Finer, calls a ‘vast, Bronze Age synthesiser’, Longplayer Live is performed on a large orchestral instrument comprised of 234 singing bowls, arranged in six concentric rings and played by shifts of six to twelve people at any one time, reading from a graphic score.
Longplayer hopes to enrich intergenerational conversations about how we can imagine the future. For this 25th anniversary performance, 18 young people from the Roundhouse’s creative community will join the orchestra of musicians and artists: a meeting of present and future custodians who will shape Longplayer’s next 25 years.
Long Poem with Caleb Femi (12pm & 2:30pm)
As part of the Longplayer Live programme, award-winning writer, director, and former Young People’s Laureate for London, Caleb Femi, presents Longplayer: Long Poem, an immersive 100-minute poetry event exploring time, inheritance, survival, and the unknown. Taking place on Saturday 5 April at 12pm and 2:30pm, Longplayer: Long Poem reflects on the past, present, and future within Longplayer’s 1,000-year continuum, weaving powerful storytelling and poetic expression.
Femi first made his mark at the Roundhouse Poetry Slam a decade ago and has since become an acclaimed writer, director, and photographer. Celebrated for his debut collection Poor—which won the Forward Prize and was added to the AQA GCSE syllabus—Femi’s work continues to elevate young voices and explore deep thematic narratives.
This event is included in your Longplayer Live ticket, allowing you to immerse yourself in both poetry and music throughout the day. Read more about the event here.
Audiences can spend as long as they wish listening and watching, and are invited to move around or find a space to rest, with the possibility to leave and return to the venue throughout the performance’s duration.
Longplayer Live is generously supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust and Urban Space Management. Thanks is also due to Universal Works for their generosity in supporting, designing and making the performers’ clothing.
This event is a part of Roundhouse Three Sixty, a brand new festival of music and culture across the month of April. Click here to discover the full programme.