Mayfest announces nine-day programme for 2024 festival

Mayfest announces nine-day programme for 2024 festival

Posted on: 22 Mar 2024

Bristol’s renowned international festival of contemporary theatre and live performances is back, curating a heart-filled gathering of artists from all over the world.

 

Mayfest runs across multiple Bristol venues from Friday 17 until Sunday 26 May 2024.

 

This vibrant festival celebrates visionary artists worldwide who create visceral experiences that move and provoke the audience through performance. Presenting contemporary theatre as well as dance, site-specific and experimental theatre, Mayfest is one of Bristol’s most radical festivals.

 

BUY TICKETS HERE

 

 

Kick off Mayfest 2024 in the right way after the first day's performances on Friday 17 May with a special FREE opening party at the Bristol Old Vic bar, complete with live music and DJs – more information on the party will be announced soon. Read on for our rundown of highlights…

 

Physical theatre piece The Dan Dan Show is an award-nominated peep into the shiny and sweaty push-pull of living with shame while bursting with pride. This show about care, intimacy, and resilience, about letting go and reclaiming yourself runs at Bristol Old Vic on Friday 17 and Saturday 18.

Hitting Tobacco Factory Theatres from Friday 17 to Sunday 19 is Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel; a daringly unaccommodated piece of theatre that switches between scathingly funny stand-up to an audacious act of collective imagining. Think King Lear, meets stand-up, meets the metaverse.

 

On Saturday 18 and Sunday 19, Watershed will host the UK premiere of asses.masses by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim. This custom-made video game about labour, technophobia and revolution is designed to be played from beginning end in a live theatre. This is gaming as performance; an immersive, cheeky and original work.

The beautiful surroundings of The Mount Without will host Goner by Marikiscrycry on Thursday 23 and Friday 24. Goner follows a figure on a suspense-filled choreographic journey into the psychological depths of the Goner’s horror, touching on topics of abuse, Caribbean migration, alienation, belonging, addiction, and violence along the way.

 

Mayfest also hosts several site-specific pieces, including Anything Moving & What Remains by Kitchen Table Photo Club. Taking place in Nightingale Valley, St Annes, this is an intimate guided trail through Nightingale Woods, encountering a trilogy of short films made by kids as animals as well as artworks and dusk trails.

Mayfest runs across multiple Bristol venues from Friday 17 until Sunday 26 May 2024, browse the full programme of pieces and secure your tickets, HERE.

Read more:

 

Article by:

Stanley Gray

Stan is a born and bred Bristolian, recently graduated from studying English Literature in Sheffield. His passions are music and literature and he spends the majority of his time in venues all over the city, immersing himself in Bristol’s alternative music scene. A lifelong Bristol City fan, Stan’s Saturdays are spent watching his team both home and away.