With the most comprehensive outreach programme of any festival in the UK and year-round activity since 1996, more than twenty five thousand people have been involved in music workshops, performances and artist residencies. Strong partnerships continue to develop with schools and community organisations and long-term planning has resulted in collaborative projects suited to the needs and abilities of the diverse communities that the festival works with across the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The outreach programme develops music from different periods and traditions to enable participants to gain new skills, make new connections with music and increase their confidence in performing to each other as well as to an audience of teachers, governors, parents, friends and the public. The programme also supports a training scheme for apprentice and professional artists throughout the year. Spitalfields Festival’s dedicated teams have worked with a variety of people across Tower Hamlets including local city workers and residents, older people from local community centres, and pupils from six to 16, both during and after school.