A WELCOME RETURN OF THE BIENNIAL COMPASS FESTIVAL IS CONFIRMED FOR 11 – 20 NOVEMBER 2016

Animating the city with brilliant interactive live art projects in libraries, markets, museums, shopping centres, secret locations and d.i.y. spaces. Incredible artworks invite the people of Leeds to activate and complete them; to join in playful enquiry, silent contemplation, astonishing feats of madness, hospitality, and communality right where they live, work and play.

Save the dates as we share with you some of the headline projects of Compass Festival 2016.

We are delighted to announce three specially commissioned world premieres. Bethany Wells has created WARMTH, a delightful mobile, wood-fired sauna designed for experimental performance and relaxation. Etheridge and Persighetti return for the completion of their three-year project with shoppers and traders at Leeds Kirkgate Market. Personal Shopper: Cornocopia! invites you on bespoke guided tours of the market made by the people who shop and work there. And Lone Twin are celebrating 20 years of their incredible artistic partnership with a brand new theatre performance. Last Act of Rebellion will premiere on 19 November at the Howard Assembly Room.

And if you think statistics are too abstract to comprehend, Compass Festival has invited Stan’s Cafe to re-imagine their world-renowned installation: Of All The People in All The World at Leeds Central Library. One ton of rice – a grain for everyone in the UK – will be weighed and displayed to alarming and moving effect.

Our full programme including all projects, talks, discussions and the Festival hub will be announced this September. We promise experiences for all ages and states of mind: sound art; creative responses to the 2016 Leeds flooding; walking (quite a bit of walking); fortune telling; parties; dancing and much, much more.

Most events are free and require no advance booking, so spread the word. We hope to see you in November if not before.

Read more here