Emergency 25 at Contact

Now celebrating its 25th edition, Emergency returns to Manchester this September – the city’s annual micro-marathon of live art and contemporary performance. For one day only, Contact will be buzzing from noon until late with bold experiments, sneak previews and strange encounters – all free to experience.

Split into two parts, the festival begins with an afternoon of installations, interventions and intimate works scattered across the building. As evening falls, audiences gather for a whirlwind of short performances from 4 pm onwards – this year sees the much-anticipated return of acclaimed duo Action Hero. The line-up spans everything from spoken word to durational performance, movement to visual art, with twenty-four artists and collectives pushing the boundaries of live work.

The 2025 programme features Action Hero, Alexis Maxwell, ClusterFlux Collective, Dongting Huang, Elana Binysh, Kris Canavan, Rory Aaron & Markus Hetheier, Rosie Hart & Poppy Waxman, Tom Cassani and many more. Whether it’s absurdist theatre, intimate storytelling or daring spectacle, the appeal of Emergency is its spontaneity – you never quite know what’s around the next corner.

Presented by Word of Warning and Contact, and produced by hÅb, Emergency is probably the UK’s longest-running live art platform. Since its beginnings at Manchester’s Greenroom in 2000, the festival has popped up across Manchester at various venues including Castlefield Gallery, Z-arts and the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, before finding its home at Contact in 2020. More than a showcase, it’s a meeting point: a chance for artists to test ideas, exchange feedback and, in some cases, springboard into future commissions.

Marking 25 years of the bizarre, the bold and the beautiful, Emergency has become a vital fixture in Manchester’s cultural calendar. This is your chance to see tomorrow’s performance ideas today – fleeting, unpredictable and full of possibility.