MAYFEST
17–26.05.2024

Bristol’s international festival of contemporary theatre and live performance.

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Pay the price that feels right for you.

Every show in the Mayfest programme is priced on a Pay What You Can basis, from a minimum of £5.

Each performance has a recommended price, but we encourage you to pay the amount that feels right for you. If you can, there’s also an opportunity to ‘pay it forward’ which will also help us continue to offer £1 tickets to specific groups and communities who wouldn’t usually be able to attend.

Latest News

Featured
Help shape the future of Mayfest – fill in our audience survey
Help shape the future of Mayfest – fill in our audience survey

Fill in our audience survey and get an exclusive discount at Good Chemistry’s online shop.

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This weekend’s Mayfest treats
This weekend’s Mayfest treats

Can you believe we’re more than half way through our programme already? It’s been an epic week here at MAYK HQ and we’re gearing up for what’s set to be a mega last few days of Mayfest.

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It doesn’t have to last forever – public art in a changing city
It doesn’t have to last forever – public art in a changing city

As Bristol enters a period of significant regeneration, how can we collectively reimagine what the provision of public art looks like in the future? How can artists playfully disrupt and create thrilling new place-based work that is non-permanent and has deeper, more rich community engagement.

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10 things you need to know about this week
10 things you need to know about this week

Mayfest opened in sensational style at the weekend with The Dan Daw Show, Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel and asses.masses (which was the longest ever performance of the show by the way, running for more than 9+ hours on Sunday). A BIG thank you to everyone who came out to support and toast to our launch with us.

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A photograph from Paraorchestra's The Nature of Why, Mayfest 2018, which shows some people dancing and a person in the foreground in a wheelchair playing a french horn

The Nature of Why, Paraorchestra, Mayfest 2018. Photo by Paul Blakemore

Creating an accessible festival experience for everyone

We want to make sure everyone can fully enjoy their festival experience.

Visit our Access Page to discover all our accessible performances, or find show-specific accessibility info on each event page.

Need companion tickets or have any other questions? Reach out to us at mayfest@mayk.org.uk or call +44(0)7704 601861

Confluence at Mayfest 2024

We’re thrilled to announce that our recent residency project Confluence will continue throughout 2024 and into 2025, with Mayfest offering an ideal platform for the further exploration of some of the themes we explored in the first phase of the project. From Esther-May Campbell’s ‘Anything Moving’ in Nightingale Valley to Kaleider’s ‘Arch’, this year’s programme encourages us to think differently about the city around us and what it might look and feel like in an imagined or real future.

Our Partners

Supported by the Nisbet Trust and the Mo Siewcharran Fund.

About Mayfest

Mayfest is Bristol’s biennial international festival of contemporary theatre and live performance; a vibrant context for unusual, playful, and ambitious live performance from artists all over the world.

Led by MAYK’s Co-Directors Kate Yedigaroff and Matthew Austin, Mayfest is a cross-city celebration of the creative vitality of Bristol and explores the parameters of the city as a creative playground.

Cultivating connections between artists, audiences, participants, and venues, Mayfest champions the voices and experiences of a diverse international community of artists who ask brave questions about how we live in a modern world.

“A mix of work so tasty it makes you want to up sticks and move to Bristol permanently” The Guardian

A photograph of Brook Tate and his band in front of a glitter curtain on stage at Bristol Old Vic. The stage is lit with blue lighting and Brook is wearing a zebra-print catsuit and has his arms outstretched

Birthmarked by Brook Tate, Mayfest 2022. Photo by Paul Blakemore