This summer, Leicester city centre comes alive with colour, creativity and climate conscious celebration as Re/action Festival returns on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 July 2025.
A free two-day event filled with performances, installations, workshops and activities for all ages, Re/action Festival invites audiences to explore how small actions can lead to big change — through art, imagination and community spirit.
Don’t miss the first ever public performances of DIRT by She Said Jump — a high-energy outdoor performance, where the audience is encouraged to explore the set and find out about the human who fell down a hole and lands in a Circus run by worms!
A major highlight for 2025 is the launch of the Nirvana FC outdoor photography exhibition and new documentary, a powerful collaboration with Leicester’s pioneering grassroots football club and Opal 22. Celebrating the club’s ambition to become carbon neutral alongside decades of anti-racist activism, youth empowerment and community pride, Passing It On tells the story of a local club that became a national symbol for change — and invites visitors to join in football-inspired activities all weekend.
Peter Knott, Area Director, Arts Council England said: “Creativity has the power to help us explore the world around us, connect with nature and learn about our relationship with the environment. Re/action Festival, produced by Art Reach and supported by Arts Council England, is an innovative two-day event that will encourage vital conversations on important issues relating to climate change. It will bring community spirit to the streets of Leicester, giving people from all backgrounds the opportunity to experience great art and culture through a vibrant programme of performances and activities that inspire sustainable actions.”
Also making an impact is a new outdoor dance commission, Spill, from choreographer Gayatri Munogee. Told through vibrant Indian classical dance and inspired by the devastating 2020 oil spill off the coast of Mauritius, this family-friendly piece is a moving tribute to marine life, environmental resilience, and hope for the future.
The festival also features Kala Arts’ new community-created installation, designed with local children using entirely reclaimed and recycled materials — a playful, hands-on celebration of creativity and sustainability.
Rethink your wardrobe with The Big Swap, a fun, free way to refresh your style and reduce waste. Bring along up to three good-quality t-shirts and swap them for something “new-to-you” in the Re/think Fashion Zone. While you’re there, get hands-on in the Re/work Station where you can upcycle your finds with free screen-printing, or bring your own worn-out tees for a fresh new look.
Paul Steele, Creative Director at Art Reach is looking forward to a weekend of creativity, “Re/action Festival is all about bringing people together through creativity and community action. This year’s programme is packed with powerful stories, local voices and playful ways to connect with the climate conversation. Whether you’re swapping a t-shirt, watching an incredible dance performance, or just stumbling across something unexpected in the city centre — there’s something here for everyone.”
Set across Jubilee Square, Humberstone Gate and Silver Street, Re/action Festival 2025 brings together local voices, national artists and global issues in an unmissable weekend of street theatre, storytelling, roaming performances, fashion swaps, and interactive fun.
Produced by Art Reach, and supported by Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery Fund, the festival is part of a national movement connecting creativity with climate action.
It’s free, it’s family-friendly, and it’s all happening in the heart of Leicester.
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Art Reach (www.artreach.org.uk)
We commission bold, ambitious art and festivals that bring people together, deliver activities and authentic experiences that unify audiences and cultures. We empower a range of artistic voices that excite and surprise with fresh energy and new ideas. Together we explore complex pasts, reshape the present and imagine new futures. We celebrate the power of sanctuary, unleash expression and tell extraordinary stories.
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. Our vision, set out in our strategy Let’s Create,is that by 2030, we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. Between 2023 and 2026 we will have invested over £467 million of public money from Government, alongside an estimated £250 million each year from The National Lottery, to help ensure that people in every part of the country have access to culture and creativity in the places where they live. Until Autumn 2025, the National Lottery is celebrating its 30th anniversary of supporting good causes in the United Kingdom: since the first draw was held in 1994, it has raised £49 billion and awarded more than 690,000 individual grants.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund (www.heritagefund.org.uk)
Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. That’s why as the largest funder for the UK’s heritage we are dedicated to supporting projects that connect people and communities to heritage, as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.