Transform Festival 2025

Every two years, Leeds becomes a playground for bold and adventurous performance when Transform Festival takes over the city. This October marks the sixth edition of the pioneering festival, running 21-25 October with five days of experimental theatre, dance and live art spread across venues and unexpected spaces. Fiercely contemporary and socially conscious, it’s all delivered on a Pay What You Can basis – making it one of the most accessible and open-hearted festivals around.

Transform 25 launches with Rinse, an epic solo performance by choreographer and performer Amrita Hepi, co-created with Mish Grigor. Exploring new beginnings, the work interweaves personal stories with the legacies of colonialism, feminism, art and pop culture – a bold and fitting curtain-raiser for a festival packed with audacious stories, joyful irreverence and sometimes dark realities.

Further highlights include Tiran Willemse’s blackmilk, an urgent dance work that examines limiting stereotypes, and EXXY by Queer artist Dan Daw, an audacious yet tender exploration of imposter syndrome, identity and self-worth. Ira Brand’s RUNNER questions why society only seems to value people when they’re pushing themselves to their absolute limits, while Basel Zaraa’s intimate performance, Dear Laila invites audiences to consider both far-reaching and deeply personal stories of war and displacement. Brazilian collective MEXA return with The Last Supper, a piece that creates powerful solidarity while asking who gets to tell the stories of those who are silenced.

As ever with Transform, the city itself becomes a stage. Alongside headline shows, there’ll be unexpected encounters in public spaces, reflective installations and one-on-one performances, all inviting audiences to see Leeds in surprising new ways. The festival also offers opportunities to meet artists, take part in conversations and join late-night gatherings that blur the lines between performance and social celebration.

Transform has always adapted to its moment – whether staging performances in warehouses, rooftops or outdoor spaces. In a time that feels increasingly fragmented and urgent, Transform 25 makes a powerful case for performance as a space of reflection, connection, hope and new possibilities.