Performance Art Festivals

Action Art / Live Art / Performance Art Festivals.

Where to look for Performance/ Action/ Live Art Festival opportunities around the globe, whether you are a performance artist or want to see more performance art works as a participant.

Performance Art Festivals and Presenters:

Africa

Asia

Central America /Caribbean

Europe

  • 19 Bone Performance Art Festival (Switzerland)
  • ABIERTO DE ACCION (Spain) – festival
  • Acción!MAD (Spain – but travels)
  • Act Art (UK) -ACT ART programmes performance, live art, time-based media, visual art and interdisciplinary works,
  • Amorph – International Performance Art Festival (Finland) – International Performance Art festival based in Helsinki
  • ANTI Contemporary Art Festival (Finland) – Contemporary Art Festival brings together inspiring, edgy, and boundary-pushing live art experiences of the moment. ANTI Festival is a unique way for artists and audiences to connect, gathering friends of live art to create and shape everyday spaces annually in Kuopio. Saastamoinen Foundation, together with ANTI Festival, strengthens the vitality and appreciation of live art through the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art. The pioneering ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art aims to raise the profile and appreciation of live art, both in Finland and internationally.
  • ARS Electronica (Austria)
  • Art Action Festival (Italy) – Annual performance art festival.
  • Artic Action (Svalbard / Norway) -Arctic Action opens up for global and local artists to work together, sharing their experiences and their knowledge. Only the people living in the north for a long time, feeling the north, seeing the changes and knowing their culture can be trusted as a witness of the North. Only the people who have lived without rights and belonging or with oppression for a long time can talk about uncertainty, fear and displacement and what that does to a person or a community. ~Arctic Action VII is a platform for these topics. What happened to us…?
In which direction is the world moving…? The climate crises are the biggest challenge for humanity of all time…, with rising sea levels, changing temperature and precipitation patterns forcing people, communities and cultures to move. Simultaneously we are having wars in Ukraine and in Gaza killing innocent civilians every day. ~The seventh edition of Arctic Action will invite artists from the North, but also artists from Ukraine, Palestine and Thailand. We are really excited and curious to see how the nomadic artists will relate to the concepts of climate, displacement, wilderness, ground, territory and space.
  • ARTefACTe (Spain)
  • Arctic Action – Arctic Action wants to be an alternative to the traditional live performance art festivals in the sense that most of the performances will take place outdoor in the impressive arctic scenery. Arctic Action will give the invited artist the time and possibility to work more profoundly, as to be able to integrate Svalbards’ natural landscape and its impressive qualities and singular expressions. In other words to give the artist time to create an unique and new art work of quality on the same unique level as the environment. – Arctic Action is a different international live event focusing on one artist at time within an ecological approach. Moreover, discussing issues on the relationship of sustainable development and its relation to art, as well as art’s relation to scientific research on the environment.
  • Art Service Association (Germany) – producer, network, archive
  • Balcony FESTIVAL online (Italy, Digital)
  • Balkon Festival (Netherlands)
  • Bbeyond (N.Ireland) – artist-run centre, collective, network
  • BELFAST INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMANCE ART (Ireland) A collaboration between The British Council and the Ukrainian Institute, the UK/Ukraine Season is being presented in the UK, online and across some satellite locations until March 2023, featuring artist residencies, talks, film, music, literature, drama, and dance. The Season, which has been planned since 2019 to mark 30 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Ukraine, aims to strengthen and build cultural connections between both countries, while providing new platforms and opportunities for Ukrainian artists to connect with the UK. With the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Season’s theme is ‘Future Reimagined’, focusing on the changed needs and priorities of the Ukrainian sector, giving a voice to Ukrainian creatives, both in the UK and online.
  • Block Universe – London’s leading international performance art festival and commissioning body. We bring together cutting-edge performance art at the cross-section of contemporary visual art, dance and music.
  • BLOW! 8 INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL (Germany)
  • Bone Performance Art Festival (Switzerland)
  • Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival (Cyprus) The Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival is part of the Home for Cooperation’s cultural and artistic agenda as one of its peacebuilding programs. The Buffer Fringe Festival showcases new and experimental work by local and international artists, challenges physical and artistic barriers, and creates opportunities for artists to meet and exchange ideas. Embedding creativity into social process, the Festival questions the role art can play at a moment and space of transition to enable alternative narratives to dominant discourse. At the same time, Buffer Fringe develops interdisciplinary tools which enhance the exploration of the relationship between arts and peacebuilding.
  • Carbonarium festival (Ukraine)
  • Castle of Imagination – International Performance Art Festival (Poland) – The International Performance Art Festival “Castle of Imagination” is organized by: Society of the Friends of Contemporary Art in Slupsk & Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Slupsk / Poland since 1993. The festival is curated by Wladyslaw Kazmierczak. “Castle of Imagination” is the only, cyclical, international festival of performance art in Pomerania and in Poland. It is one of a few festivals of art in Europe and in the world. During 13 years, in the Festival there participated 352 artists from 33 countries: Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Japan, Holland, Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, France, Ukraine, South Korea, Lithuania, Portugal, Hungary, Honk Kong, Finland, Spain, Singapore, Czech Republic, Belgium, Northern Ireland, Byelorussia, Mexico, Israel, Yugoslavia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Egypt and USA.
  • Centrum Kultury w Lublinie (Poland) – producer (curator: Waldemar Tatarczuk)
  • City of Women ( Slovenia) – The annual International Festival of Contemporary Arts
  • club8 difusió de la performance (Spain) – producer of eBent International Performance Festival of Barcelona
  • Contenedores – International Festival of Action Art (Spain)
  • Convergence (Ireland) – Live Art Ireland with p(art)y Here and Now, presents CONVERGENCE A BORDERLESS ROMANCE 2025. from 8-10 of August. This is an an art and music festival like no other bringing together the latest in live art practice with local and national musicians and a range of workshops, aiming to celebrate and promote diverse artistic talents from around the world. It serves as a platform for artists to showcase their innovative works and foster cross-cultural exchange. With this in mind, we have curated a lineup that represents artistic excellence from various corners of the globe.
  • CPP – Contemporary Performance Practices (Croatia)
  • The Chronic lllness of Mysterious Origin (UK, London) PDF download ‘Conceptual introduction of the Dungeons of Polymorphous Pan performance art space, which hosts Chronic Illness (of Mysterious Origin) event since 2015 London UK (PDF)
  • DAMPF – Internationales Festival für Tanz, Medien und Performancekunst also tanz performance köln (Germany) A festival that takes a look at the different phases between dance, media and performance art. tanz performance köln
  • Diskurs Festival (Germany) –
  • eBent Performance Festival (Spain) – Ebent ofrece un espacio a la práctica, al debate, a la documentación e investigación del Arte de acción.
  • Eco Future Performance Festival (Romania)
  • EPAF – European Performance Art Festival (Poland) – Annual performance art festival.
  • Eurokaz ( Croatia) – Festival of international, experimental theatre and performance art.
  • EXCHANGE LIVE ART (Spain) – residency, laboratory project
  • Experimenta (UK)
  • Expo Festival of Performance (UK)
  • Faki Festival – (Croatia) online streaming and live
  • Fierce Festival (UK) is a youthful and joy-filled festival of international theatre, performance and experiences which takes place in and around Birmingham (UK) every two years.  Fierce transforms the city and the way we feel about it:  populating theatres, galleries and hidden, unusual or out-of-the-ordinary spaces like disused warehouses, swimming pools and car park. You might see theatre, dance, performance art, music, installations, activism and parties or a combination of all those things in a programme of memorable experiences and events.
  • FEM – (Netherlands) FEM is a unique international performance art event dedicated to showcasing work by women performance artists. Since its beginnings, the festival has consistently offered women artists the opportunity to create and show new works of performance in a supportive environment and enabled them to share their practice with others in the workshops and theory programmes. – FEM began in 2004 when Denys Blacker and the Dutch artist Anet Van de Elzen collaborated to organise an event on International Women’s Day in the town of  la Bisbal d’Empordà. It is traditional in la Bisbal for the women to meet on this day, the 8th of March to celebrate together and the festival was a way to contribute to the activities that were being organized that year.  Seven artists were invited to come and present a performance work in the medieval castle in the town centre. The performances were made simultaneously and the public could mover freely through the spaces during the evening to see the works.
  • FAR (Festival des Arts Vivants) ( Nyon, Switzerland)
  • FARaway – Festival des Arts à Reims (Reims, France)
  • Festival en mi Balcón (Italy)
  • Festival of Experimental Live Arts UPROOTED Fake Nations, Helsinki, (Finland)
  • Festival Perform (France) – le festival Perform explore la performance comme un langage artistique pluriel, melant installations épheméres, gestes dansés, expérimentations numériques et interventions in situ. Porté par des artites issus de l’art contemporain, de la dance et des arts numériques, l’événement s’adresse a tous les publics, des plus jeunes aux ainés, a travers des ateliers participatifs, des masterclasses et des moments d’échange.
  • Fierce Festival (UK)
  • FIX Performance Art Festival (UK) – Fix is the oldest Artistic Biennial in the UK, and devoted entirely to the cutting edge of Performance Art.
  • Flam is a festival for Live Art in Amsterdam.(NL)
  • Four Days Festival ( Czech Republic)
  • FRAGILE 2024, the international festival for sustainability and art (Germany)
  • GalataPerform (Turkey) – an artist-run interdisciplinary performance venue in Istanbul
  • Goteborg Dance and Theatre Festival (sweden)
  • HIGH FEST International Performing Arts Festival  (Armenia) We are pleased to inform, that the HIGH FEST International Performing Arts Festival welcomes performing arts companies and artists to present their productions in all genres of performing arts including theatre (drama, comedy, mime, movement, circus, street performances, puppet/marionette, fingers theatre, visual etc.), dance (contemporary, modern ballet, folk, classic etc.), music (opera, classical, musical, contemporary, jazz, folk etc) and other forms of performing arts.
  • Hull Time Based Arts (UK) – producer, ROOT Festival
  • Infinite Present (Ljubljana, Slovenia) Infinite Present is an international festival of performance founded and organized by the Theatre Glej. Idea for launching a new festival of performance and live art came as an outgrowth of the project Time For Live Art.
  • Infr’action (France) – festival
  • Inport International Video-Performance Art Festival (Estonia) – Annual video festival concentrating on performance art related material.
  • Interakcje (Poland) – INTERACTIONS is annual International Art Meeting, especially performance art, but also video/sound art and installations.
  • Interactions Festival (Italy) – Inter national Workshop Festival of Performances, Performing Arts, VideoArt & Installations.
  • Interakcje Art Action Meeting (Poland) – festival
  • International Interdisciplinary Collaborative Arts Festivals (Czech Republic) – CESTA has presented a range of interdisciplinary arts festivals over the years.
  • International Festival of Performance Art (other link) (Denmark)
  • IMAF (Serbia)
  • International Multimedial Art Festival (Serbia) – festival
  • International Performance Art Festival Navinki (Belarus) – festival
  • International Performance Art Turbine Giswil (Switzerland)
  • IPAF (Denmark)
  • INTERNATIONAL SOKOLOVSKO FESTIVAL OF EPHEMERAL ART (Poland)
  • JOURNEY TO THE EAST (JTTE) (Scotland)
  • Klapstuk Festival (Belgium)
  • Kyiv international performance art festival (Ukraine)
  • Là-bas (Finland) – producer
  • The gathering of Action Poetry and Performance Artists, La Muga Caula (Catalonia, Spain)
  • Live Action Gothenberg (Sweden) – festival – Live Action celebrates its 20th anniversary under the theme of Freedom—arguably one of the most profound and essential concepts for humanity, alongside survival itself. Freedom is a complex and layered notion, touching nearly every dimension of social life. Yet it remains a word — perhaps the word — that resonates most profoundly across cultures and histories. Freedom and its core significations are key to all people. Reaching 20 years as an annual performance art festival is no small achievement. When Live Action was founded two decades ago, we did not foresee such a long trajectory —perhaps we should have. But would it have changed anything? Probably not. The festival began as a project, and over time, it evolved into a living, dynamic platform.
  • Live Art Danmark (DK) -We have presented live art and performance art for 20+ years in Denmark; identifying strongly with the LADA quote that live art is not an art form, but a strategy, a way of questioning status quo and thinking about how things can be different. With this impulse, we have presented towards 400 international artists with a wide range of works from live performances to documentations of many kinds.
  • Live Art Falmouth (UK) (link broken)
  • Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (UK)
  • Locus  (UK) – producer (link broken)
  • London Performance Art Festival
  • Long’Action (France) – festival
  • MEM, (spain) es un festival internacional de música, arte, danza, cine y otras expresiones de vanguardia. MEM defiende la pluridisciplinaridad a través de proyectos transgresores en un momento en el que la creación toma muy pocos riesgos. MEM combina lo internacional con lo local buscando un diálogo fructífero entre los diferentes artistas participantes; acercar a Bilbao propuestas que se hacen en otros puntos del planeta y a la vez mostrar dentro del mejor marco algunas de las producciones locales más interesantes. El modo en el que MEM presenta y trabaja es una parte importante de su apuesta e identidad. MEM es un festival organizado desde y para Bilbao, es por esto que su identidad y campo de interés están totalmente ligados al de la ciudad. Un Bilbao entre el recuerdo de la contaminación industrial y el de la era de la información y las nuevas tecnologías.
  • MIRfestival (Athens, Greece) MIRfestival is a satellite, a system in orbit, parallel to other systems, like the Soviet (and later Russian) orbital station it shares its name with. Passing by artists, creators of ephemeral and unique works, stop on MIR for a while to emit their signal before they continue their trip in time and space. MIRfestival is situated on the cutting edge of the new creation, on the provocation of the unexplored, on the violence of birth, on the acuteness of claim.
  • Momentum Festival (Belgium)
  • Movement to Performance Festival (finland)
  • NADA Sevilla Contemporary Art Fair (Spain)
  • National Festival of Performance Art (Denmark)
  • National Review of Live Art (UK – Scotland)
  • Navinki International Performance Festival (Belarus)
  • New Moves International Ltd (UK – Scotland)
  • New Performance Turku festival (Turku, Finland) Performance art essentially exists in the encounter, tension and friction of people, actions, places, and communities. In the time of crisis, polarization and uncertainties, coming together is a way to decrease distance and build new connections. What have we learned in past years from being alienated from each other? How to reactivate a sense of connection with other bodies and other species? The biennale invites to investigate how performance art and other unusual experiences can create spaces for sharing.
  • NOW! Festival of Improvisation (Berlin, Germany)
  • Ornic’art (France) Organisation promoting performance art and organising workshops and an annual festival. Also maintains a French language blog of performance resources.
  • THE OTHER SIDE Festival (Finland) Founded by artists and curators Aman Askarizad and Parsa Kamehkhosh, The Other Side is a performance art platform based in Vantaa, Finland. Inspired by the dialectical essence of ping-pong—where the perpetual volley of the ball epitomizes the foundational principle of dialogue and reciprocity—our approach transforms the ephemeral nature of performance art into a vibrant discourse of aesthetic and intellectual exchange. It is an interactive journey that challenges, connects, and transforms. The Other Side is dedicated to enriching Vantaa’s cultural landscape by making it a dynamic hub for performance art. We curate and organize a diverse array of events, including live performance festivals, one-day performance events, screenings, and educational programs, fostering a space where artists and audiences engage in meaningful dialogue.
  • O U I Performance (UK) – organization
  • Uovo Performing Arts Festival (Italy) – Festival of experimental dance and theatre.
  • PAErsche – Since our inception in 2010, we have realized numerous internationally recognized projects as a PAErsche Aktionslabor and have continuously expanded our commitment. As is necessary and inevitable in art and society, we are always exposed to a dynamic process that has manifested itself in recent years in an internal change and generational change. As a platform for international performance art, which always has the finger at the pulse of contemporary art and social developments, changes are not only inevitable, but are always a possibility for growth and further development. In view of this, we have decided to change our name and to call ourselves a “PAE-Aktionslabor e.V.” This name change not only reflects our renewed artistic focus, but also symbolizes our will to face the challenges and opportunities of the present.
  • Pals festival (Sweden)
  • Pequeño Evento Performance Art – Spain
  • Perfect Performance (Sweden)
  • Perforacije – Perforations Festival in Croatia- week of live art (Croatia)
  • PERFORM PERFORM FESTIVAL, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Performance Art Congress (Germany)
  • Performance Art Event (PAE) (Netherlands)
  • Performance Art Festival (Poland) -“Stories. The world is more complicated than our truths about it” is an interdisciplinary artistic and educational project in the field of contemporary visual arts (including performing arts) carried out by the Mazovian Museum in Płock, Poland, in partnership with Kunstbanken Center for Contemporary Art in Hamar, Norway, under the banner of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson’s work. The reference to the Themersons is crucial for the project as it results from both the programme policy of the Mazovian Museum, whose Themerson Gallery opened in 2021, and the universality of the Themersons’ thought and artistic output in the context of contemporary art. The project will last for a year, from April 2023 to March 2024, and the programme of the events assumes the organization of artistic activities in places located outside large centres, both in Poland (Płock) and Norway (Hamar), with poorer access to culture.
  • Performance Art Kyiv (Ukraine)
  • PERFORMANCE CROSSINGS – international performance art festival Prague, Czech republic
  • PAR®️Performance Art Rome (Italy)
  • PerformInstanbul (Turkey)
  • Performance N’ Tha (UK, London)
  • Performance Platform (UK)
  • Perforum (Switzerland)
  • Plateaux Festival (Germany) – Plateaux is an international production festival for young artists in the field of experimental theatre, performance and live-art.
  • Platform Festival, (VASA, Finland)
  • Private Impact Live Art Festival (Poland)
  • PROGR Performance Plattform – (Bern Swtzerland) PROGR PERFORMANCE PLATTFORM für Experimente und Neues in der Performancekunst bietet PerformerInnen, ihre Performancekunst einem breiten Publikum zu zeigen und darüber hinaus eine internationale Vernetzung mit anderen PerformancekünstlerInnen im PROGR, Zentrum für Kulturproduktion Bern, zu schaffen. Bei PPP geht es weniger darum bereits Bewährtes und Gefestigtes zu zeigen, vielmehr möchten wir die PerformerInnen dazu ermuntern, zu experimentieren und sich in ihren Arbeiten neu zu erfinden und zu erproben.
  • Random Institute
  • RestCycling Art Projektbüro (Germany) international RestCycling Art Festival
  • Sacred Homeland Performance Art Festival, London, UK
  • Sofia Underground International Performance Art Festival (Bulgaria) a contemporary art event, which has gained cult status during the years with its original form. Founded by art critic and activist Ruen Ruenov (1958-2011) in 1997, it first started as a widespread happening with a long-running performance program that took place on the underground floor of the National Palace of Culture – a reaction to the social crisis of that time. Ever since, with a few short breaks, this event has developed a prominent sensitivity towards public processes and the dynamics of the local art scene. The topics of the festival editions during the past years exemplify how the event reflects ongoing processes happening within our social environment – visible also through the artists’ statements of the participants. For the past decade, Sofia Underground was run in annual releases of the festival event – held in Sofia, Bulgaria, and additionally, in the shape of smaller supportive events – part of the Sofia Underground platform, variable in their scale and format, and realized throughout the year at different locations in Bulgaria and abroad.
  • SPILL Festival of Performance (UK)
  • SPILL YER TEA (England) Performance N’ Tha is an artist led DIY initiative that was founded by Pierce Starre in Liverpool in 2019. The organisation has since developed national and international recognition as a vital platform supporting radical and experimental performance art.  Performance N’ Tha has developed a number of close national and international links with organisations including Live Art Development Agency, PerformIstanbul and Venice International Performance Art Week. The vision of Performance N’ Tha is to cultivate a thriving community of national and international performance artists in the northwest of England, and to foster and nurture a sense of exploration, support and growth. The organisation positions accessibility & inclusivity at the forefront of its work and is committed to presenting a fusion of genres where exciting and dynamic intersections within performance art can be activated. 
  • SPRING Performing Arts Festival (Utrecht, Netherlands)
  • Springtides – International Performance Festival (Germany) –
  • Steirischer Herbst Festival (Austria)
  • Stromereien Performance Festival (Switzerland) – The main focus of the festival is the human body in motion in an urban landscape.
  • tactileBOSCH (UK) initiates experimental and alternative exhibition spaces and coordinates innovative and groundbreaking shows. We nurture a progressive, far-reaching and edgy performance art and conceptual philosophy. tactileBOSCH is an artist led collective championing experimentation and specialising in performance art, multi-media, and site-specific installation. Through its exciting programme of exhibitions and events, tactileBOSCH seek out and adapt to new spaces and contexts, granting permission to artists to experiment with their work in a way entirely impossible in a traditional or gallery setting.
  • Tampere International Theatre Festival (Finland)
  • Tartu International Theatre Fest (Estonia)
  • Territori Ibiza Performance Art Festival (Spain)
  • Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (Greece)
  • Thessaloniki Biennale (Greece) – festival
  • Time Festival (Belgium)
  • Trace: installaction art space (Wales) – producer (closed 2007)
  • Trailer Park (UK) -Trailerpark is dedicated to showcasing new innovative and challenging interdisciplinary artworks within the public arena.
  • Transformation Festival (Serbia) – Annual festival presenting of alternative actions in the city space and opening any communicative possibilities
  • Translocal Performance Art (Giswil, Switzerland) Die 24. Festivalausgabe mit dem Titel «Im Handumdrehn» steht im Zeichen der plötzlichen Transformation. Wir feiern die Beweglichkeit, mit der selbst festgefahrene Situationen überraschende Wendungen nehmen können, und üben Realitätssinn und Zuversicht. Kunstschaffende aus der Schweiz, aus Deutschland und aus Vietnam öffnen Räume für künstlerische Begegnungen. Im Fokus stehen Praktiken und Strategien, die sich ausserhalb institutioneller Räume bewegen, sich mit sozialen Themen beschäftigen und alltägliche Rituale befragen.
  • transitstation – transitstation is an ongoing international exhibition-as-live-art event featuring performance art, music, experimental electronica, physical theatre, poetry, video, mixed-media projection, installation, interactive performance, fashion, lectures, workshops and interviews. (Denmark)
  • Trigger Stuff (UK)
  • Troubles Festival of European Live Art (Belgium) – festival of Live Art based at Les Halles in Brussels. Launched in 2005, Trouble has ever since been the international performance event in Brussels. TROUBLE is held every two years, in the odd years.
  • Urban Festival – (Croatia) festival
  • Venice International Performance Art Week (Italy) is the globally renowned platform dedicated to promoting and exploring performance art. Focusing on the production and documentation of the ephemeral and immaterial, the project showcases archives of seminal pieces alongside live programs of performance works of emerging and established artists. Held in Venice, Italy, each edition centres around a specific theme and format, as performance art is rooted in a strong sense of communing cultural, social, or political urgencies and conjuring momentum. With its community-based and artist-run curation, the project has gained international acclaim for supporting artists working in this critical and experimental medium. The project is committed to contributing to the ongoingness of the lineage and the evolution of performance art as a living tradition, social practice, and pivotal driver for cultural change.
  • VENICE EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO AND PERFORMING ART FESTIVAL -(Venice, Italy)
  • FESTIVAL VERÃO AZUL (Portugal) is one of casaBranca‘s main projects and it is dedicated to promoting contemporary and transdisciplinary creation and performing arts in the Algarve. The 12th edition of Verão Azul is a multi-layered lab where performance art, sound and the visual arts come together to challenge aesthetic and conceptual definitions.
  • Visions – The Festival of Visual Performance (UK)
  • Wake Festival (UK) WAKE Festival is a three day festival of contemporary time-based/performance art in Folkestone (Kent), UK. The festival consists of four site specific, durational works which unfold in and around Folkestone, across the 8th, 9th & 10th of September. In addition to the site based works, each evening (7pm-10pm) a more condense series of performances take place at ]performance s p a c e [ (62 Tontine St.) on the Friday, Saturday & Sunday evenings.
  • Wiener Festwochen (Austria) – Large Summer festival including contemporay theatre, dance and occassionally performance art.

Middle East

North America

  • 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts – (USA) producer, interactive Language Festival
  • 7A*11D International Festival of Performance Art (Canada)
  • Art In Odd Places (US, New York City) Art in Odd Places (AiOP) presents visual and performance art in unexpected public spaces. AiOP also produces an annual festival along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River each October. rt in Odd Places aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas.
  • Boston Butoh and Performance Art Festival (Boston) – feature 3 incredible evenings of live performance by 8 internationally-acclaimed Butoh and Performance Artists, as well as 2 days of movement workshops and a free film night.
  • Bubbly Creek Performance Art Assembly (US, Chicago)
  • CENTRAL – Performance Festival by Pancho López – Central, the first Central American and Caribbean performance festival, will take place during the months of September, October and November 2024 at Grace Exhibition Space, a space for creative experimentation that has been dedicated to performance for more than a decade, located in the Lower East Side, in Manhattan, New York. In this festival, attendees will be able to see twenty performances and works by artists who work from immateriality and the creation of ephemeral experiences from the body, a true feast for the senses exploring themes such as violence, migration, diaspora, the abuse of power, identity and other problems intrinsic to the human being. Curated by the Mexican artist Pancho Lopez, this festival seeks to build a bridge between the Central American region, some Caribbean islands and one of the most important global stages in the world in terms of art and culture: New York City.
  • Currency International Festival of Performance (USA) – festival
  • Dislocada/Dislocated 2024 Internacional Performance Video Showcase An international showcase of performance videos by some of the world’s leading performance artists in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas, addressing through performance work, the uncertainties and challenges of global warming and its impact on human life and that of our planet. Presented by Cuerpos Disidentes – Dissident Bodies (San Juan, USA) & Casa de Duende (Philadelphia, USA).
  • DUMBO Arts Festival (New York City, US) – no longer active. A three-day celebration of the arts, the DUMBO Arts Festival brought spontaneous performance, site-specific sculptural interventions, international video art, and large scale projections to the waterfront neighborhood of DUMBO, Brooklyn for a one-of-a-kind art happening.
  • Encuentro (Various countries in the Americas)
  • FADO Performance Art Center (Canada)
  • Festival d’arts vivants (Canada)
  • Festival TransAmériques (Montreal, Canada)
  • Franklin Furnace (USA)
  • Fringe Festivals US
  • Full Nelson (US) – festival
  • GNO (Canada)
  • Grace Exhibition Space (US, New York)- Opened in 2006, Grace Exhibition Space is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging works by the current generation of international performance artists whether emerging, mid-career or established. Our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. This is how performance art is meant to be experienced and our mission is the glorification of performance art. Grace Exhibition Space presents over 30 curated live performance art exhibitions each year, showcasing new work by more than 1000 performance artists from across the United States and the world since 2006.
  • INSITU site specific dance Festival (NY, US)
  • IN>TIME 19, A CITY-WIDE PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL IN CHICAGO, IL, USA –
  • IN>TIME is Chicago’s triannual winter-long performance festival. The IN>TIME Festival features a season of performances, presentations, and exhibitions at venues throughout the city from local, national, and international artists.
  • In 2019, IN>TIME is working in coordination with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events’ upcoming exhibition, goat island archive – we have discovered the performance by making it, at the Chicago Cultural Center. Nine artists/collectives will develop responsive performances to the nine works created over the course of Goat Island’s 23-year history, with a tenth performance created from fragments of the nine new responses. Festival creator and former Goat Island member Mark Jeffery describes the festival being initiated in 2008 as coming out of the close of the Chicago-based group’s time together: “Chicago is an important hub for global conversations around art and culture, and performance is a vital part of this, and with all the opportunities and networks and friendships that Goat Island was part of, it was important to bring this knowledge and connections closer to home, here.”
  • Inverse Performance Art Festival (Arkansas, US)
  • Live! (Vancouver, Canada)
  • LIVE Performance Art Biennale (Canada) LIVE Biennial of Performance Art is a 6 week performance art festival in Vancouver, Canada. It is a collaboration between 20 art organizations and produced by the recently formed LIVE Society. Biennale in October on odd years.
  • Mobius (US) – artist collective, producer
  • Out of Site (Chicago)
  • Pacific Standard Time Festival: Live Art
  • Pals festival (Sweden)
  • PEPA (Small Performance Art Event) (Spain) PEPA (Small Performance Art Event) is a performance event in Madrid organized by the action art artist Analía Beltrán i Janés that aims to cover the need in Madrid of performance art events in small, self-managed spaces with continuity over time in a monthly meeting. It’s itinerant, because the space in performance art is an element that gives character to the work and, therefore, the change stimulates the creativity of the artists. It’s a non-profit event, it doesn’t receive any funding. It’s a place for meeting and exchange of action art, open to the participation of performers of all ages and nationalities, where young artists can gain experience and those who have long career can try something new and, in this way, enjoy us all. More Info: http://pepaevento.blogspot.com.es/ https://www.facebook.com/pepaperformance
  • Performance Art USA, PAUSA (USA)
  • Performa (US, New York)
  • Performance Art Event (PAE) (Netherlands) is a platform for performance art. An ever-changing structure, currently adapting to the organizers’ artistic development and work. The organisation is currently run by Nina Boas, Ieke Trinks and Martijn Stellinga. In 2008, together with Martijn Stellinga, we organized our first performance art event in Rotterdam. It was inspired by the performance art events in Finland we had taken part in. There we experienced performance art presented in such a way we couldn’t find in the Netherlands at that time. In Finland performance art was given it’s own exhibition space. The events consisted of going from one performance to the next, moving from one space to the other. Coming from a place where performance art is usually programmed during openings of art exhibitions and through that becoming an entertaining element, made us decide to organize a yearly event solely for performance art.
  • PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL (US)
  • Performance is Alive (Brooklyn, NY)
  • PERFORMATORIUM FESTIVAL OF QUEER PERFORMANCE (Regina, Canada) – Performatorium brings together a wide range of performances that address a ubiquitous and often taken-for-granted function of the human body. The mouth, specifically its role in making audible sound, is the centre of attention this year where language, speech, song, conversation, story telling, poetry and even stand-up comedy are all on the tip of the Peformatorium tongue. Speaking and singing – the voice – is what you will hear; listening is what you will do; and a wide range of ideas and concepts – personal, political, social, sexual – is what will be told.
  • Philadelphia Live Arts Festival (US, Philadelphia)
  • Pittsburgh Performance Art Festival (Pittsburgh, US)
  • Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival (United States, Chicago)
  • Re: Live Performance Lab (US)
  • Riga Performance Festival STARPTELPA* (Latvia) is an annual international art and culture event focused primarily on performance art, yet also supporting cross-disciplinary and experimental synthesis of performative arts. The aim of the festival is to strengthen the position of performance art as a sovereign form of art, fighting against its constant ghettoization in the arts and culture ecosystem.
  • Rosekill.Art.Farm for Outdoor Performance Art (US, Kingston NY) Rosekill is 60 acres of land in Hudson Valley. On this land, performance artists from around the world attend and participate in many outdoor festivals for Performance Art.
  • Salt Lake City Performance Art Festival (US)- Catch world-class performance art with the 9th Annual Salt Lake City Performance Art Festival, curated by Kristina Lenzi and hosted by the City Library. You’ll experience unscripted, unrehearsed, thought-provoking work from local and national artists.
  • Satellite Art Show (US- various)
  • Site, out of Site – Flow Symposium – (US – Chicago)
  • Signal and Noise Festival (Canada) – Sonic arts festival that includes a programme of performance art. (possibly defunct)
  • TBA – Time Based Art Festival (US, Portland)
  • Test Performance and The Present Tense (US – Boston) – TEST is a series of performance art events that occur on a quarterly basis
  • Trigger Festival
  • Utah Arts Festival (Salt Lake City, Utah, US)
  • Viet Voices – inaugural one-day performance art festival, which features the works of fellows selected for the first AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship, co-founded by Viet Voices and local artist and curator hamsa fae. the land we carry will take place at El Salon, a repurposed Catholic church in San Ysidro near the U.S.–Mexico border. A meditation on the intersections of diasporic memory, queerness, and spiritual inheritance, artists will express live and non-live performances that offer portals to worlds re-imagined–where the subconscious reveals truth for community activation.
  • VIVA! Art Action (Montreal, Canada)
  • Yellowfish (US)

Oceana

  • Adelaide Festival (Australia) bi-annual festival
  • Adelaide Fringe Festival (Australia)
  • Exist (Australia) -a set of Live Art explorations, collaborations, installations, performances and forums held at three sites across Queensland
  • Live Art Asia Festival (Australia) A survey of contemporary live art practice from the region.
  • Papilla: It’s a matter of taste – (New Zealand) The festival is a platform for research-based works exploring the material, conceptual, sensorial, and experiential aspects of taste, as well as its social-aesthetic extensions. Live performances and other creative responses are compiling this three-day event that seeks to celebrate multi-dimensional aspects of papillae. 
  • PAWA Performance Art Platform in Aotearoa (New Zealand)

South America

  • Festival internacional de Perfomance-art y Formatos Audiovisuales – Festival Internacional de Performance-art y Formatos Audiovisuales (FIPFA), aborda las confluencias y desarrollos entre dos campos artísticos desde su producción de pensamiento crítico y experimentación.
  • Ars Electronica Festival (Chile)
  • Calle – Bienal Del Performance (Bolivia)
  • Convocatoria Festival Internacional de Performance-Art (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
  • Curacao HOA Gallery genz Queer Performance Art Festival (Brasil)
  • Encuentro (Various countries in the Americas)
  • FESTIVAL LA PLATAFORMANCE: RESISTÊNCIA EM REDE, PRIMEIRA EDIÇÃO (Sao Paulo, Brazil) -O “Festival “La Plataformance – Resistência em rede – 1ª edição” criará uma zona de encontro entre artistas de localidades distintas, que resistem e produzem redes de troca com suas produções no campo da Arte da Performance. O festival selecionou 14 artistas, a partir de propostas de trabalho poético que trouxeram em seu percurso uma relação dialógica e de troca. Além dos selecionados, o festival conta com artistas internacionais, entre eles a presença inédita no Brasil da artista estadunidense Marilyn Arsem, além de Manuel Vason, artista ítalo-inglês e do coletivo equatoriano La Multinacional. Os artistas do La Plataformance também farão parte da programação que abrangerá as dependências e entorno da Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade e o bairro Jd. Damasceno, na periferia da cidade. Além das mostras haverá dois dias de encontro “Conversa (A) Fiada” com convidados e dois workshops vinculados ao festival – com Marilyn Arsem e Manuel Vason.Durante a mostra acontecerá também uma série de sessões de vídeo em parceria com a MOSTRA IP (Crato-CE I Coletivo Camaradas).
  • In Transit International Performance Festival – (Chile)
  • Live Art Mexico (Mexico)
  • PAS Festival de performance art de Bogotá (Columbia)
  • PerfoPuerto (Chile) – festival, producer
  • Santiago a Mil (Chili)
  • Santiago Off (Chili)
  • SerformanceP International Performance Art Exhibition (São Paulo, Brazil) SerformanceP is a performance art exhibition created in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2015. With a focus on live art, video-performance, urban interventions, and digital experiments, the platform has received over 100 works by Brazilian and international artists.
    The project combines performance, education, and technology, with experiences in augmented reality, telepresence, and immersive installations, and is deeply committed to community engagement in peripheral urban areas.
    Submissions are open via international open calls. The project archives are available at www.serformancep.com.br
  • TRAMPOLIM_plataforma do encontro con a arte de performance (Brazil, Vitoria)
  • Verbo Festival (Brazil) – Annual performance art festival featuring regional and international artists
  • Zondadearte (Argentina) Organisation that presents an annual festival of action art.

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Major venues for experimental art, emphasizing live and performance art.

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