A free community festival is returning to the banks of the Thames at Barking Riverside for its third year with immersive sculptures and cold showers.

A main feature of Emerge East is the Arborialis Luminarium art installation, an interactive walk-in sculpture illuminated by colour and light, inspired by the natural world.

It is being shown in London for the first time, after its recent tour of Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

Returning to the festival on September 7 is the Wild Riverside sauna on the riverbank with its deep heat, cold contrast and rejuvenating steam — a chance for the brave to immerse in ice pools and bucket showers in a mostly-unexplored stretch of the Thames.

The festival also has street food pop-ups, DJs, a makers’ market, craft and holistic health workshops and ecology walks.

"Local legends in the kitchen” will become street food vendors for a day to experience their secret family recipes.