Now Northwich 2025

This May Bank Holiday, the streets of Northwich will come alive in spectacular style as Now Northwich –  a major free outdoor dance and street arts festival – fills the town with colour, movement and music. From carnival to circus, tap to contemporary, visitors can expect the unexpected as a host of world-class artists animate the streets. Starting at midday and carrying on into the evening, this joyful celebration brings together performance, community spirit and surprising encounters – all just a short hop from Manchester.

Now in its fifth year, the festival – produced by Cheshire Dance – has become a key fixture on the UK’s outdoor arts calendar. With vibrant performances popping up across the town centre and Barons Quay, we love how this feel-good event invites audiences to experience Northwich in an entirely new way.

The 2025 programme is as bold and imaginative as ever, with a strong emphasis on accessibility and community participation. Highlights include UNITY, a large-scale aerial spectacular from Gorilla Circus. Expect an adrenaline-pumping performance featuring high-wire walkers, dance trapeze acrobats and hair-hanging artists performing mid-air on cables strung between towering masts – all choreographed to original poetry inspired by the people and communities of Northwich.

Elsewhere, carnival takes centre stage, thanks to Greater Manchester’s Global Grooves, who have been working with schools and community groups to create a parade bursting with Northwich flair. With giant walkabout puppets, larger-than-life costumes, a sea of colourful flags, and the thunderous rhythms of Brazilian percussion, the procession sets off from Witton Street Library at 2:30 pm, winding its way through the streets toward Apple Market Place in a joyous celebration of creativity and community spirit.

Also debuting this year is the world premiere of The Garden, The Styx and The Underworld, a multi-sensory installation by choreographer Matthew Rawcliffe, created especially for young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). This thoughtful, bespoke performance offers an intimate, one-to-one experience that celebrates the sensory pleasure of movement and presence.

Northwich’s own Ben Wilson, a professional dancer with Down’s Syndrome, also takes to the stage with Step Ahead – a heartfelt and energetic mix of contemporary dance, hip hop and poetry exploring themes of friendship and belonging. Other standout performances include Manchester favourites Company Chameleon with Umbra, a powerful duet tackling the complexities of identity and exclusion, and the delightfully eccentric Tea Club, created by Ruth Jones and Clare Fildes. Look out for two vintage tea ladies serving up cups of tea from a musical gramophone trolley as they dance through the streets.

For younger audiences, Sole Rebel’s Tap Dancing Taps promise plenty of fun – tap-shaped characters splash and strut through town, trailing soapy bubbles and infectious rhythms wherever they go. Rounding off the day’s programme is Convergence, a region-wide community dance showcase curated by the Now Northwich Young Producers, featuring a vibrant mix of local and regional dance groups.

Whether you’re the kind to map out your day or follow the music and see where it takes you, Now Northwich is the kind of festival we love. A springtime celebration of movement, community and creativity – the perfect outdoor adventure.