Taking the energy of BEYOND Conference off the stage and into MediaCity, Festival runs from November 23 to November 25 and offers free events, open to all, alongside the conference.
Expect live performances, hands-on workshops and immersive art, plus conversations and social events you won’t find anywhere else. Explore the programme below!
HOW TO BOOK BEYOND FESTIVAL > Festival events are free, however a Festival Pass is required. Register your pass, then sign up for your preferred individual free events with your member code.
HOW TO BOOK BEYOND CONFERENCE > Extend your time at BEYOND 2026 with a BEYOND Conference ticket. Check out our stellar creative industries line up and buy conference tickets.
MONDAY NOVEMBER 23
CREATIVE CONNECTIONS: REAL STORIES, INSPIRING FUTURES
3:00-4.30PM – MEDIACITY STUDIOS
In conversation: Creative Chemistry: The power of collaboration in creative careers. Hear from organisations involved in the GM Business Growth Hub’s ‘Creative Connections’ career day as they reflect on their journeys and their work with young people across Greater Manchester.
Through a series of conversations, speakers will share insights, lessons learned and stories from their own experiences, highlighting the importance of creativity, collaboration and opportunity in shaping future careers. More information TBC via GM Growth HUB.
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CREATIVE MIXER
5.30-9.00PM – MEDIACITY STUDIOS
Join us for an evening of creativity, technology, conversation and discovery as the first day of Beyond Festival brings together artists, researchers, creative organisations and audiences from across Salford, Greater Manchester and beyond, with drinks, light bites, live music and opportunities to connect throughout the evening.
Explore a series of interactive installations, creative experiments and immersive experiences that showcase how artists are using emerging technologies to tell stories and imagine new futures.
Highlights include:
> A digital showcase from the artists who took part in the CreaTech Artist CoLab Artist Development Programme, a city-wide initiative supporting Salford-based artists to explore new technologies through mentoring, collaboration and experimentation.
> Commissioned by the University of Salford as part of the CreaTech Artist CoLab Programme, experience Lament for a Mill by Ali Abedzadeh, a virtual exploration of the lost Salford Twist Mill that combines archival research, sound and digital reconstruction to reflect on memory, labour and industrial heritage.
> Also commissioned as part of the CreaTech Artist CoLab Programme, by Quays Culture, you will have the opportunity to encounter Standing Wave by FENO (Freddy Mendoza Noto), an interactive installation that uses microbial life from the River Irwell to generate sound, light and movement, inviting audiences to consider new relationships between technology and the natural world.
> See the first showing of, Sisyphos, the triptych film by Kay Voges and Andrea Schumacher, about the absurdity of existence and the beauty of repetition. Presented as part of Nested Cinema, an AHRC-funded research project at the University of Salford, expands a section into a walk-through loop of screens, light and spatial sound. Drop in throughout the evening, shown at Beyond Festival for the first time, the installation offers an early look at a portable system for immersive cinema.
> Commissioned by Quays Culture as part of SHINE and Light up the North, experience Noctilucent by lighting designer Nurul Wardani. A captivating installation and performance that uses projected light, atmosphere and movement to create shifting forms and transform the perception of space.
> Discover Entangled Light, a collaborative project by artists and researchers Helen McGhie and Antony Hall, based at Manchester Metropolitan University’s School of Digital Arts (SODA) and Islington Mill in Salford. Blending photography, technology and ecology, the project explores new ways of making images through interactions with the natural environment. Using soil-powered light, Entangled Light transforms a community garden into an experimental photographic studio. Discover the installation and take part in a hands-on workshop that sparks conversation about light, place and connected living systems.
Get involved in a creative networking experience hosted by Salford Creatives and facilitated by Art with Heart. Through a hands-on zine-making activity, visitors can meet new people, share ideas and make new connections across Salford’s creative community.
The evening’s music programme will be curated by Salford-based creative producers From the Other, known for creating imaginative live music experiences that bring people together through culture and creativity.
Free to attend and open to anyone aged 18+, this event welcomes those looking to discover new work, share ideas, make connections and explore how creativity and technology are shaping our world.
This event is presented in partnership with MediaCity, GM Business Growth Hub, the University of Salford and Salford City Council, with support from the UK Government through the Economic Development and Regeneration Flexible Grants (EDRFG) programme distributed via the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Salford City Council, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
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WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 25
GOOD GROWTH BREAKFAST
8.30-10.00AM – PIER ROOM 8, LOWRY THEATRE
BEYOND’s Growth day explores how we fund and scale creative innovation sustainably, bringing together investors, founders, policymakers and cluster leads working to unlock the creative industries as one of the most dynamic investment frontiers of our time.
This breakfast opens that conversation. Join us to explore good, sustainable growth in practice, from grants and seed investment through to venture capital, debt and accelerator support, including GM Business Growth Hub’s Creative Industries Accelerator, with funders and founders working across CreaTech and IP-driven growth offering a practical guide to the investment landscape shaping Greater Manchester’s creative economy.
Co-hosted with GM Business Growth Hub, and part of BEYOND Conference’s Growth day (Build, Fund & Scale). Open to Conference ticket and Festival pass holders. With Delyth Edwards, Senior Manager – North West, British Business Bank and Emily Cloke, CEO, Creative UK.
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EXPLORE THE CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 24-25
Fancy combining Festival events with BEYOND Conference? BEYOND Conference 2026 is built around two themes, Experience and Growth, each with its own focus, energy and agenda. Each themed day brings together the people shaping the creative industries to explore the sector’s greatest opportunities and tackle its defining challenges. With speakers from Aardman, Ars Electronica, Arup, British Council, CoSTAR National Lab, Creative UK, The Design Council, Merlin Entertainments, UK Research and Innovation, and Universal Destinations and Experiences – to name just a few. Choose from full (2-day) conference or single day tickets, with Festival entrance included.