Manchester Guest City programme announced for iconic Barcelona La Mercè 2025 festival

Manchester was chosen last year by its Catalan counterparts to be the first-ever English guest city at this year's event which takes place from 23 - 28 September.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed between Manchester and Barcelona last year, noted that the two cities share both a very similar industrial past with histories that are linked to workers' movements, as well as a present and future with great cultural wealth linked to the creative industries. 

The Memorandum kicked off a cultural collaboration between the two cities, providing a working framework for artists, organisations, and other partners, focusing initially on music and street arts events for this year's La Mercè festival.

Since then the two cities have been working closely to put together a spectacular programme of Mancunian grown talent in outdoor arts and music for audiences in Barcelona to enjoy.

Councillor Garry Bridges, Deputy Leader, Manchester City Council, said:  "Guest City status for Manchester at this year's La Mercè festival is a huge honour for us and we're enormously grateful to our partners, colleagues and friends in Barcelona for the opportunity to collaborate and play a part in their iconic festival.

"Culture and diversity are big deals for us in Manchester and play a vital part in helping strengthen and shape our communities, pride and prosperity. Thanks to our wonderfully diverse artists, venues, festivals, and creative workforce, culture has had a transformative effect on our city.

"The Manchester programme for La Mercè showcases the very best of our fantastically diverse cultural scene and our hugely talented artists and creators.

"We hope it gives a flavour of the vibrant and thriving cultural scene we have here in Manchester and look forward to further strengthening our ties with the great city of Barcelona and welcoming new visitors and audiences to our city off the back of this."

The resulting programme is a celebration of fantastic outdoor work created by Manchester artists and organisations. 

Highlights in the special cultural exchange include two unique new commissions from Manchester-based creators working with Barcelona-based performers, alongside new work created to celebrate Manchester and its people at La Mercè.

The programme for Manchester as Guest City has been led by XTRAX and Without Walls. It showcases the diverse cultural communities of Manchester and the rich diversity of the UK outdoor arts scene - including parades, dance, music, poetry, fire and installations.

Maggie Clarke, Director at XTRAX, said: "I'm delighted that Manchester will be Guest City at La Mercè 2025, which is the result of many years of collaboration between XTRAX and colleagues in Barcelona City Council and the Catalan arts scene. La Mercè is recognised as one of the greatest festivals of outdoor arts in the world, and it is an honour to present some of the fantastic work from Manchester at this prestigious event.

"XTRAX firmly believes in the importance of outdoor festivals, and their valuable role in bringing people and communities together. Our programme at La Mercè celebrates the diversity and quality of work from our region and we hope will inspire other global cities to seek collaborations with Manchester and the great artists from our city.

"I'm thrilled to have secured a great opportunity for UK artists in Barcelona and we look forward to continuing this exchange by hosting Barcelona artists in Manchester in 2026, and ongoing collaboration in years to come."

Manchester at La Mercè has been produced by XTRAX, and co-curated by Without Walls.

Ralph Kennedy, Chief Executive at Without Walls, said: "We're honoured to have collaborated with XTRAX as a strategic partner for Mercè Arts de Carrer (MAC), the La Mercè outdoor programme.  Without Walls has been proudly based in Manchester since its founding, and we're absolutely thrilled to be part of this exciting city to city partnership.

"Manchester is a vibrant hub for some of the best outdoor art being created in the UK today.  The programme of shows curated by XTRAX and Without Walls for Barcelona, in partnership with the artistic director of MAC, stands as a testament to the city's incredible creative energy."

The Manchester at La Mercè programme features several major collaboration projects between Manchester and Barcelona artists, as well as new work created especially for this unique event.

Here are some of the highlights:        

 

Bee for Barcelona

Carnival arts specialists Global Grooves (Manchester) team up with renowned Catalan artists Pau Reig and Dolors Sans (Barcelona) to create Bee for Barcelona - a striking new collaboration to create two Giant Bees, celebrating shared industrial heritage, cultural pride, and artistic exchange. These Giants will perform in front of thousands of people as part of La Mercè world famous Parades of Giants and Beasts.

Queen Bee Gigante, wears a costume reflecting Greater Manchester’s communities and cotton legacy. She transforms into a maypole, surrounded by 30 community dancers and musicians in a fusion of Morris and Classical Indian dance—re-imagining May Day and Carnival traditions.

Alongside her, Worker Bee, a 4-metre kinetic sculpture, shimmers with hand-painted silks encased in fibreglass, evoking stained glass. Copper legs and cog motifs nod to the textile mills and industrial histories of Manchester and Barcelona and the birth of the Industrial Revolution.

Blending Mancunian, Catalan, Pan-African, and South Asian influences, the project features 30 diverse performers from groups including Saddleworth Women’s Morris and Clog, and The Indian Association Oldham’s Dancing Diyas.

Leon Patel, CEO, Carnival arts organisation Global Grooves, said: "Queen Bee and Worker Bee tell a powerful story of how they earned their stripes.

"Queen Bee represents the evolution of that labour into opportunity, progress, culture, and celebration.  She is not born of royal blood, but is Queen for a day, like the Cotton Queens of Greater Manchester's mill towns, the Carnival Queens of the Afro-Brazilian tradition, and the flower-crowned May Queen.  Work Bee honours the sweat and toil of workers wo build Manchester's global industrial might.

"Both bees will be animated in parades and performances at La Mercè accompanied by an original musical score blending Mancunian, Catalan, Pan-African, and South Asian sounds."

Both bees will be brought to life in parades and performances with an original multicultural musical score.

Global Grooves producers visited Barcelona in March 2025, with Pau Reig and Dolors Sans joining a Manchester residency from 21–27 July 2025.

Bee for Barcelona is commissioned by XTRAX for MCRxLaMerce2025. Supported by Manchester City Council, Arts Council England and XTRAX. Funded by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), GM Arts, Oldham Council, and Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council.

Following its premiere at La Mercè 2025, Queen Bee Gigante and Worker Bee will return for Manchester Day in July 2026.

More information on Bee for Barcelona
                                                                                                    

 

The Ultimate Player's Handbook

Manchester’s leading contemporary dance company Company Chameleon has been commissioned to create a new dance performance, The Ultimate Player’s Handbook, for La Mercè with Barcelona dance duo Clémentine & Lisard

In the heart of a town’s square, a living handbook unfolds — one written not on paper, but in movement, strategy, and play.

The Ultimate Player’s Handbook is a vibrant street performance that explores the games we play every day - where rules are made and broken, roles shift between winner and loser, and cooperation is as vital as competition.

Co-directed by Company Chameleon (UK) and Clémentine & Lisard (CAT), the piece transforms public space into a playground where teams form, alliances shift, and every move asks us to reflect on the parts we play.

With music, dance, and celebration, this handbook in motion invites us to question: how do we navigate rules - and how do we bring a sense of playfulness in our everyday lives?

Barcelona-based Clémentine & Lisard have spent the last two weeks in Manchester (14-25 July) to create this new choreographed performance with two of Company Chameleon’s dancers and Artistic Director Kevin Turner, MBE, at Company Chameleon’s studios in Gorton.

Kevin Turner, MBE, Artistic Director of Company Chameleon said: "International collaboration has always been at the heart of Chameleon’s work, and we’re delighted to be working with Clémentine & Lisard. The commission allows us to work with a really exciting and innovative Barcelona based dance company and create something new and interesting.  The collaboration gives us the chance to learn from each other, explore commonalities in our practice, and share and benefit from each other’s touring networks.”

Blending the athletic and emotionally rich movement styles of both groups, the work will debut at La Mercè in Barcelona on 24, 27, and 28 September 2025 and return for Manchester Day 2026.

The Ultimate Players’ Handbook is commissioned by XTRAX and the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona and funded by Arts Council England and Manchester City Council.

More information on The Ultimate Player's Handbook

 

Barcelona Bee Hive

Another World Premiere, Barcelona Bee Hive will also be created especially for Manchester at La Mercè.

Artizani is a UK-based arts company specialising in spectacular theatre performed in unconventional spaces. One of Europe’s most stylish and striking street theatre acts, their work is accessible and thought-provoking, featuring high production values and a surreal twist.

The bee is the symbol of Manchester - historically representing its hard-working, unified community, and more recently serving as a powerful emblem of unity and resilience.

Audiences are invited to wander among the honey-perfumed colony, tended by ethereal beekeepers, and peer into surreal miniature worlds of 'working' wonder.  In a specially commissioned new bee hive, created to celebrate Manchester at La Mercè, visitors can see Mancunian bees enjoying scenes from traditional Catalan festivities.

Barcelona Bee Hive is commissioned by XTRAX and funded by Arts Council England and Manchester City Council. 

More information on Barcelona Bee Hive     

     

OUR CITY SPEAKS - poetry films from Manchester                                                                                    

Another unique project developed especially for Manchester’s programme at La Mercè that celebrates Manchester's wealth of poets and spoken word artists working in a wide range of diverse styles and languages.

A captivating curated selection of short films featuring some of the city's current leading poetry performers will take viewers on a journey through poetry that talks about identity, unity, resistance, and resilience.

Jo Flynn, Director of External Affairs, Manchester City of Literature said: "Barcelona and Manchester already share cultural ties as sister UNESCO Cities of Literature, and in many ways their dynamic cultural identity and literary boldness align too. We're thrilled at Manchester City of Literature to be part of La Mercè programme celebrating this partnership with Manchester poetry films on stage for the festival in September. We can't wait to see where the partnership between the cities will take us next, across all artforms."

Manchester UNESCO City of Literature has curated this collection to share with Catalan audiences in Manchester's sister UNESCO City of Literature during La Mercè.

The project builds on Manchester City of Literature’s strong relationship with Barcelona City of Literature which has seen a number of artistic exchanges. The partnership between the two UNESCO Cities of Literature has seen Manchester novelists, poets and performers featured at Barcelona Literary festivals throughout 2025, in celebration of La Mercè. Barcelona poets will be commissioned to help translate the work of the Manchester poets into Catalan, so the works can be understood by local audiences and a number of Catalan poets will be invited to share work about Barcelona in Manchester in 2026.

The project has been commissioned by XTRAX, funded by Manchester City Council and Arts Council England, and is delivered in partnership with Manchester City of Literature and Barcelona City of Literature.

More information on Our City Speaks

 

Fire Garden by Walk The Plank

Walk the Plank, one of the UK’s leading outdoor arts specialists, will bring their acclaimed Fire Garden installation to Trinitat Park for La Mercè 2025. Known for creating ambitious public celebrations and immersive outdoor spectacles for over thirty years, the company will transform the park into a glowing landscape of metal, fire and music created by local musicians in Barcelona.

Liz Pugh, Creative Producer for the Fire Garden, said: “We're delighted to be bringing some Mancunian magic to La Mercè, and particularly excited to see how our installation of kinetic fire sculptures animate Parc de la Trinitat in a new and different way.  To be invited to bring UK work to the heart of the Catalan cultural festival is an honour indeed.

Walk the Plank will be working with students recruited from local colleges, offering the opportunity for young people from Barcelona and elsewhere to work alongside the company's professional fire technicians.

Liz added: "Investing in the talent of the next generation is important to us, and we seek to provide opportunities for young people to gain experience. The chance to work alongside international artists is valuable for young people: they can gain new skills and expand their ideas of what is possible through culture. We look forward to welcoming some of the Catalan artists, the musicians and the students to Manchester next year too - let's find a way to repay the warm invitation which the city of Barcelona and MAC festival are offering to us."

 

Other dynamic performances from Manchester outdoor arts companies featuring at La Mercè festival in Barcelona in September 2025 will include: Company Chameleon - Umbra; DamaeDance – IRMÃ-sister; Ghetto Fabulous – Family Catwalk Extravaganza; Joseph Toonga, Just Us Dance Theatre – Born to Protest; Mark Anderson in collaboration with Liam Walsh – Warning Notes; Motionhouse – WILD; Mr Wilson’s Second Liners; Stopgap Dance Company – RO-TES រទេះ

The full programme can be found at xtrax.org/MCRxLaMerce2025

 

 

Music programme

The Manchester Guest City music programme at La Mercè is presented by Manchester Music City, led by Brighter Sound.

Kate Lowes, Director, Brighter Sound (sector lead Manchester Music City) said: “We’re thrilled to announce such an exciting group of artists representing Manchester at La Mercè 2025 – Children of Zeus, Chloe Slater, Clara la San, Porij, Ríoghnach Connolly and Honeyfeet, and Space Afrika – a powerful showcase of the city’s rich and genre-defying music scene. We’re also proud to be supporting a brand-new musical collaboration between Manchester’s Werkha and Catalan artist Queralt Lahoz, which will premiere at the festival. As a member of the Music Cities Network, Manchester is proudly international in its musical outlook. This is a fantastic opportunity to deepen creative exchange between Manchester and Barcelona, and to celebrate our shared love of music on an international stage.”

 

International Speakers Panel Discussions and Professional Networking Events                               

Alongside the outdoor performance programme at La Mercè there will also be a number of panel discussions and networking events exploring the importance of outdoor festivals in giving visibility to cultural communities and bringing people together.

These discussions will include international speakers and policy makers and will be attended by festival organisers, local authorities, artists and producers from across Europe. These events are a prelude to Mondiacult, the world's biggest cultural policy conference for the member states of UNESCO taking place in Barcelona from 29 September – 1 October 2025.

This programme has been organised by XTRAX, Without Walls, La Mercè, ICEC Catalan Arts and Unlimited, with support from British Council and the British Embassy in Spain.

The professional programme is here

 

The Manchester guest city programme at La Mercè  is being supported by Arts Council England through a grant to producers XTRAX.

Jen Cleary, Director North West, Arts Council England said: “We're proud to be supporting Manchester's Guest City programme at La Mercè in Barcelona this September. Not only will it create opportunities for talented Mancunian artists to showcase their work on an international stage, but it is a shining example of how arts and culture can support greater connections and dialogue between cities and communities across the world. La Mercè is a major event in the European outdoor arts calendar and we can’t wait to see Manchester take pride of place as the Festival’s Guest City.” 

 

For full details on the Manchester programme at La Mercè visit www.xtrax.org.uk/MCRxLaMerce2025 

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

Programme content - Lesa Dryburgh, Freelance Marketing Manager, XTRAX lesa@xtrax.org.uk Cc maggie@xtrax.org.uk

Manchester City Council - Jane Lemon, 07798 947519, jane.lemon@manchester.gov.uk