Bounce back in time and enjoy a rare opportunity to witness the unique talent of Stage Beyond Theatre Company on the big screen. The award-winning theatre company empowering adults with learning disabilities, produced their debut film in 2021, using Marcel Proust’s novel Remembrance of Things Past as the guide. They drew in particular on Proust’s theory of “involuntary memory”: where a sense, a smell, an object, a colour, places a memory directly into our consciousness. We don’t recall, it just arrives.

Ruairi Conaghan (co-producer, writer and director) wrote a prologue and epilogue to frame the memories. He uses extracts from Proust’s novel, as well as Brian Friel’s beautiful poetry of memory. Get ready for a laugh, a dance, a song and a cry, as we revisit this special theatre company whose focus is on inclusion, access, and excellence.

Following on from Bounce 2024, Foyle Pride is back with ‘Still Not Your Pity Party!’ This encore continues its unapologetic, eclectic collaboration with queer, d/Deaf, disabled or neurodivergent spoken word artists from the North West.

Fighting to reframe the labels of ‘inspiring’ or ‘brave’. Exhausted by sad looks relating to the disability. Tired of dealing with an ableist society’s pity. Enraged, they came together to celebrate their unapologetic eclectic brilliance under the watchful guidance of their MQ (Mummy Queer) Mel Bradley. The lineup includes Isaac Quinn, Devin Kane, Alex Cregan, Blathín Gillen – among others!

(W)right Now is a writing workshop for writers of fiction, poetry, drama. It is an opportunity to reflect on writing interests, to practise craft, to sharpen critical modes of address, and explore where identities intersect.

Dave Duggan lives in Derry, where he writes in English and in Irish. His latest book is Journeywork: A Creative Life (Nerve Centre, 2024), a collection of essays described as ‘luminous’ in The Irish Times. His work for film and television includes the Oscar-nominated Dance Lexie Dance (Raw Nerve Productions, 1996).

Re-collections is a series of mixed media pieces. It combines elements of vintage photography, advertising, and street ephemera with ink, acrylic, and paper—creating a tension between beauty and decay.

A key element of this exhibition is the exploration of intersectionality—how multiple, interconnected layers of identity, including gender, religion, class, and ability, create unique, overlapping experiences.

Re-collections is an invitation to reflect on what we choose to show the world and what we keep hidden beneath the surface. It is a visual dialogue between the past and present, between the polished exterior and the raw, unfinished story that lies underneath.

Not Just BS is a disabled-led networking, discussion and performance forum for artists and activists developed around this year’s festival theme ‘Not Just…’ on the importance of disability representation, diversity, and intersectionality in the arts sector.