Transform Festival to light up Leeds this spring

Culture is at the heart of Leeds and its communities, and this spring the Transform Festival will light up the city with a wide range of colourful performances from the world of theatre and dance.

Beginning on the 26 April and ending on the 4 May, the festival will take over a mixture of iconic venues and disused spaces across the city.

Highlights include the UK premiere of An Atypical Brain Damage which will see Bejing based and former student of the University of Leeds, Tianzhuo Chen, perform an immersive pop opera.

When It Breaks It Burns, from a Brazilian theatre company, will take over an old school hall in a mix of dance, live music and performance, highlighting the real-life stories behind Brazil’s high school occupations of 2015 and 2016.

Prime Studios will host the festival’s HQ with after show talks, salons and parties taking place across the two week programme.

To discover more events and to book tickets visit www.transformfestival.org

The festival is supported by Leeds 2023, a five year cultural festival which will celebrate culture in the city with a culmination of events in 2023. Leeds 2023 will provide a model of how cities can collaborate with partners all over the world and strive to be an outward-looking, innovative and welcoming city.

Ruth Pitt, chair of the Leeds 2023 Trust, said: “Transform has grown into a truly international event which attracts artists from around the world to Leeds for a bold and innovative celebration of creativity and artistic invention.

“The festival not only makes an ambitious statement about culture in Leeds, its programme also brings our communities together while supporting and nurturing the next generation of theatrical talent. We’re exceptionally proud to be supporting Transform and excited to be working alongside the organisers as we continue to build what will be a dynamic and unique programme for Leeds 2023.”

Culture plays an important role in the development of Leeds and in 2017 Leeds City Council adopted a new culture strategy for the city that will run up to 2030. More details can be found here.