Spill Festival

The tradition & historical record

SPILL Festival is an artist-led biennial of theatre and live art in the UK that takes place in various venues in London and Ipswich, England. The festival was originally produced as the SPILL Festival of Performance by Pacitti Company under Artistic Director Robert Pacitti until 2021. Since then, Robin Deacon has served as the Artistic Director, beginning in 2021. Launched in 2007, SPILL Festival presents internationally significant and groundbreaking work in the fields of performance, live art, and experimental theatre. The festival has become a major platform for both established and emerging artists, with a strong emphasis on innovation, accessibility, and community engagement. SPILL runs a year-round programme of events and activities through the SPILL Think Tank, a Victorian Art School located next to Ipswich Museum. This space hosts exhibitions, talks, performances, and the Think Tank Live series, which showcases contemporary performance and interdisciplinary work. ¹

Productions have included: ¹

Covet Me, Care for Me, Sheila Ghelani Trans: Acts, Julia Bardsley Collected Works, Eve Dent Ringside, Mem Morrison Sacred, The Rite of Spring, Raimund Hoghe Three Duets, Pacitti Company ¹

At SPILL Festival 2009 there were approximately 100 live performances by artists from Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the U.S. and from across the UK. Spill Festival 2009 ¹

Paradiso by Romeo Castellucci, Italy Inferno by Romeo Castellucci, Italy Dinner With America, Rajni Shah, UK That Night follows Day, Victoria & Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment), Belgium/UK A Forest, Pacitti Company, UK Purgatorio, By Romeo Castellucci, Italy Saving the World, Gob Squad, Germany/UK Visions of Excess, Ron Athey & Lee Adams, USA/UK A True Story About Two People, Julie Tolentino, USA Listen, My Secret Fetish, Richard Haynes, Australia Aftermaths: A Tear in the Meat of Vision, Julia Bardsley, UK The Modes of Al-Ikseer, Harminder Singh Judge, UK Tears of Eros, Carla Esperanza Tommasini, Italy/UK The Porcelain Project, Grace Ellen Barkey and Needcompany, Belgium Look mummy, I’m dancing, Vanessa, Belgium Kim Noble Will Die, Kim Noble, UK Orgy of Tolerance, Jan Fabre, Belgium Prototypes, Robin Deacon, UK Void Story, Forced Entertainment, UK Intermission, Pacitti Company, UK I Feel Love!, George Chakravarthi, UK ¹

Source: ¹

Glorious, Rajni Shah Do What Thou Wilt, Harminder Judge I Guess If The Stage Exploded, Sylvia Rimat In Eldersfield Chapter 1, Kings of England Body House Version 1, Shabnam Shabazi (UK) Unto Us A Child is Born, Rachel Mars Foley, Jo Bannon A Sense of the World, Darren White ¹

Held from 13–22 October 2023 in Ipswich, the festival featured performances and projects by international and UK-based artists. Highlights included: ¹

Mega Bunny and Friends – Bruce Asbestos Monumental Construction – Olivier Grossetête (France/UK), large-scale cardboard architecture built with public participation 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do) – interactive family event based on the book by Gever Tulley friend – Gillie Kleiman (UK), collaborative dance performances in the private homes of Ipswich residents Ecdysis (ritual) – Alethia Antonia (UK), dance piece exploring transformation I guess you have a lot of questions – Maritea Dæhlin (Norway/Mexico), solo performance on language and identity ¹

In 2024, SPILL presented Think Tank Live, a series of performances, talks, and exhibitions held at the SPILL Think Tank space in Ipswich. Highlights included: ¹

White Balance: A History of Colour Photography – Robin Deacon (US/UK) The Sonic Commons – Mike Challis (UK), immersive sound performance Lines of Resistance – Elly Clarke (UK/Germany), performance on digital identity and surveillance The SPILL Artist Development Programme also supported new work through artist residencies: ¹

Esme Podmore – development of a new visual/performance piece Maria Garcia – interdisciplinary residency focused on movement and live art ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Spill Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Spill Festival is performance festival of UK, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²