Horizons Festival is back between Thursday 12 June – Sunday 15 June 2025

HOME and Community Arts North West (CAN), in association with Band on the Wall, are thrilled to announce that Horizons Festival will return to Manchester between Thursday 12 June – Sunday 15 June.

Celebrating Refugee Week through creativity, community, and connection, this year’s theme, More in Common, reflects a shared desire to build understanding and prevent divisions in society caused by fear and misinformation, championing the power of art to unite people across cultures.

Curated in collaboration with HOME and CAN’s Arts & Migration Group of international artists, Horizons 2025 pays tribute to people who advocate for unity, justice, equality, and reconciliation.  The festival honours the artists and communities, building bridges, creating connections, and challenging hate and despair while celebrating the richness of global cultures through a week of visual art, film, community events, family-friendly workshops, and live music.

On Thursday 12 June, the Horizons Festival kicks off at Band on the Wall, where Greater Manchester’s global diaspora takes centre stage, celebrating Band on the Wall and CAN’s World of Song programme, which is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Audiences can enjoy contemporary and traditional music from Somalia with Xaawo Kiin, the rhythms of Latin America and the Caribbean with the Guacamaya Latin Band, and the folk music of Iran with the Hamsaz Ensemble.  Without Borders, an 11-piece, cross-cultural youth band, will make their debut. The gig promises to be a night of fresh sounds that celebrate musical genres and global heritages.

Friday 13 June sees the festival move to HOME.  The venue is host to the unveiling of Between the Lines, a new public commission by photographer Pinar Yildiz, accompanied by performances from local musicians.

In a panel discussion, Refugee Action and RAS Voice will present their newly launched report, Asylum in the UK: A Frontline for Racial Justice, which highlights the urgent need to address racism in the asylum system.  The panel includes Jonathan Kazembe of Refugee Action and Catherine Lebadou, a Lived Experience Activist from RAS Voice.

Friday night wraps us with the Horizons Festival After-Party + Networking Event, hosted by CAN and HOME’s Arts and Migration Group of international artists.

The After-Party features a live performance from Refugee Action’s band.

On Saturday 14 June, families are invited to dive into a day of creativity, with free activities and workshops.  The day includes workshops: making a paper mosaic with artist Ahmed Elzber, drumming along to the rhythms of the Djembe with musician Godfrey Pambalipe, learning the steps of traditional Palestinian Dabke Dance with Fares Farraj, and creating prints with artist Linda Wachaga.  Some workshops will be ticketed, so book early when the tickets go on sale on Friday 2 May to avoid disappointment.

Families can also enjoy a specially curated film in our cinema, programmed by the arts organisation Culture Bridge.

Cartwheel Arts hosts hands-on sessions for those interested in exploring global heritage crafts, including traditional Ukrainian Petrykivka painting with Valeria Leonova and clay tea light making in honour of Diwali with Deepa Parma.  These artists are part of the Crafting Heritage programme, a two-year exploration of heritage crafts thriving within Rochdale’s vibrant communities with lived experience of forced migration.

Art lovers can celebrate the unveiling of a brand-new visual art exhibition at HOME’s Inspire Gallery created by WAST (Women Seeking Asylum Together), a network of sanctuary-seeking women in Greater Manchester.  In collaboration with visual artist Ashleigh Beattie, the group has created original new works, accompanied by a live performance from the WAST Choir.

On Saturday afternoon, there is a Global Youth Takeover in Theatre 2.  The show promises to be a vibrant showcase of theatre, dance, live music, and animation created by young people from Afrocats, CAN, Band on the Wall, and Culture Bridge’s community-based creative engagement programmes.  Expect a joyful medley of performances from Manchester’s young talent, including children and young people recently settled in the UK.

On Sunday 15 June, the festival closes with Arts & Migration On Screen, a captivating series of short films ranging from animation to experimental documentary exploring migration, belonging, and community through the eyes of local filmmakers.  The screening includes HOME’s newly commissioned documentary by Mohammed Ali Sheida, which features the personal stories of international artists who have found a home and creative voice in Manchester.

“Horizon’s Festival is an essential space where unheard voices are amplified and celebrated.  It’s more than a festival; it’s a statement.  Horizons is a bold, creative declaration that we, as communities, have far more in common than that which divides us.”

“In partnership with HOME, and this year working with Band on the Wall, we’re proud to create a festival that brings communities together, uniting people through joy, celebration, and powerful provocation.  Horizons entertains whilst shifting perspectives, using creativity to spark dialogue about the world we live in.”

“It’s a showcase for Greater Manchester’s most exciting creative talent from communities that are often overlooked.  The festival is a space where communities and artists can trust their creativity will be honoured authentically and accurately.  Through the Horizons Festival, we don’t just witness change—we make it happen together.”

Anna Vu Thompson, CAN’s Creative Director

“Horizons festival is authentic Mancunian magic, an unapologetic creative expression of our culture and communities.  It’s a vibrant celebration of artistic practice shaped by migration, cultural hybridity and displacement.  It’s a multi-artform, multilingual, multilateral showcase.”

“We are so proud to work alongside Community Arts North West and Band on The Wall to present this year’s exceptional programme.  For nearly a decade, Horizons has been a platform for Manchester’s most crucial and creative voices to draw on their histories, inherited traditions, cultural practices, and complexities of multifaceted identities.”

“It’s a space for both joyous and challenging work – work that celebrates diasporic experiences and unflinchingly provokes the most urgent conversations for right here, right now.”

Lucy Follon, HOME’s Creative Engagement Visual Arts Practitioner

Tickets for Horizons Festival 2025 will go on sale on Friday 2 May.

Photography: Shirlaine Forrest.