Lucy Burke

SICK! Festival

Great art changes lives when it changes the way people feel and think about their bodies, minds and communities. SICK! Festival empowers diverse communities to confront the physical, mental and social challenges that we face in our individual and collective lives. Through creation, presentation and public conversation, SICK! places outstanding art at the heart of positive health and health at the heart of outstanding art. Based in Manchester, and presenting across Greater Manchester and the North West, we deliver an outstanding international arts programme, weaving in perspectives from research, clinical practitioners, public health professionals, charities and those with lived experience of issues addressed – culminating in a high-profile, biennial international festival. Themes are explored through many art forms – dance, theatre, public installation – and through lectures and debates. SICK! takes the conversation into the heart of the communities where the subjects matter most and to major cultural centres, providing common ground where differing perspectives come together in shared exploration. The issues we examine are difficult: sexuality, identity, mental illness, ageing, death - the very stuff of being human. They are also deeply personal and often kept away from public debate. We exist to change that.