Wrexham will welcome artists from around the world to Queen’s Square this summer, as the city’s flagship arts festival, Spirit Fest, returns with its most adventurous programme to date.
Curated and created by the award-winning Paallam Arts, Wrexham will experience an exceptional mix of dance, circus, theatre and movement artists from Wrexham, Wales, Ireland, India and Spain at the free outdoor festival that will begin at 10:30am on Saturday 18th July.
“Spirit Fest 26 is shaping up to be a vibrant, energetic, jam-packed event that will reflect the very best of our city,” said Krishnapriya Ramamoorthy, producer of Paallam Arts, “We’ll be offering residents and visitors alike the opportunity to watch, participate in and enjoy an experience like no other, one that has been created and curated for the people of Wrexham.’
Headlining the festival will be NoFit State Circus, the UK’s leading large-scale contemporary circus company, who will visit Wrexham for the first time in their history. Kitsch n Sync Collective will also play a key role, bringing their unique blend of comedy and street theatre to the square, alongside a specially curated site-specific work by Irish circus company Cirkada Circus supported by Culture Ireland.
This year, the festival will also feature, for the first time, a day-long conference taking place on Friday 17th July, which will connect Wales with the world and offer opportunities to discuss how the sector can better collaborate and forge partnerships internationally.
Krishnapriya explained, “We’re passionate about developing and providing an international network for artists that enables long-term connections and benefits us in Wrexham as much as it does our collaborators.
“One of our long term partners,Mr. Manoj Kumar, Director of Ayodhana Kalarippayattu Gurukkul, said recently ‘When you grow, we grow’, and that’s exactly how we’re viewing this year’s additional conference element. It is an opportunity to learn, to grow and to share alongside artists working locally, and much further afield.”
In the run up to the festival, there will also be subsidised educational workshops for schools and young people living in the city, organised and run by Paallam.
“We strongly believe in our ability to establish and grow local skills, so that’s why the educational outreach programme is as important as the whole festival itself,” Krishnapriya added, “For us, it is where we can create a long term significant impact, and build a conversation from a very young age.”
