Abandon Normal Devices FESTIVAL 2020 \\

Abandon Normal Devices’ festival of new cinema, digital culture and art, and the UK’s only roaming digital festival  - during its 9th edition will take to the water, exploring the global trade gateway of the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey.

It will transform waterways, ports and docklands into temporary autonomous creative zones, unfolding along the water’s edge at sites in Merseyside and Cheshire.

Opened in 1894, the 58 km long Manchester Ship Canal, an inland waterway in the North West of England links Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. It is an engineering wonder which has traversed the North’s industrial heart for 125 years, chronicling the past, present and future industries.

AND Festival 2020 aims to bring into focus global trade industries and infrastructures largely hidden from sight and will enable prophetic reflections of global trade systems and raise radical perspectives to envisage shared liberatory futures.

The Festival's programme will feature 4 days (14-17 May) of unusual and unexpected experiences – immersive installations, augmented reality seascapes, virtual environments, floating experiments and immersive field trips – on boats, docks and ports.

Intrigued? Make sure to put AND's Festival dates into your calendars!

Abandon Normal Devices (AND) is a nomadic commissioner and born-digital producer unafraid to enter new territories and broker new partnerships.

''We propose a significant shift in the way that art is experienced through staging projects that spill out of the gallery and into the ‘street’. Our portfolio includes the UK’s only roaming biennial which takes place in a new location every edition and an annual commissioning programme, which can take the form of public art, site specific film happenings and cross platform productions.''

Read more about AND background.

AND Festival 2020 is supported using public funding by Arts Council England with additional support from British Council and The Space, and programme partners Canal & River Trust, Culture Liverpool, Culture Warrington, The Daniel Adamson, University of Salford Art Collection, Somerset House Studios and Wirral Council.

Festival's Programme TBA soon.

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