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A community hall has tables and chairs set up with colourful bunting and balloons to decorate. People are sat at the tables watching a woman in a pink hat and dress speak.

Take Over Festival 2018

19th Sep 2018

Booking is now open for Take Over Festival (#TakeOverStHelens) and for six thrilling weeks between 16th September and 13th December 2018, art, culture and pop-up performances are igniting the streets and the spaces of St Helens.

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In a world where the only constant thing is change, what does that mean to our sense of self?

Looking for this year's programme? Explore what's on at Take Over 2022 and book tickets to any of our free events.

No location is off limits as artists are invited to showcase new and engaging work in libraries, shops, labour clubs and public spaces. St Helens 150’s edition of the festival examines the idea of identity.

A person with a dark beard wears a gold, glittering gown and wits in a darkened room next to a lamp. They are singing.
A woman with blonde hair wears a red glittering dress and holds a microphone smiling. She stands in front of a gold, scalloped curtain.
A man in a suit, with light, short hair sits on a stool in front of an audience. He gestures with his hands and is talking to children sat on the floor.
Image Credit: Stephen King

Contributors include son of St Helens, Frank Cottrell Boyce, award-winning US performance troop Split Britches (in a North of England debut of their Unexploded Ordnances show), and - fresh from her Edinburgh festival triumph - Selina Thompson presents salt - her visceral, vulnerable and beautiful exploration of her family’s colonial history.

Whether challenging, enthralling, captivating or enchanting - or, possibly all of the above - Take Over Festival promises to break culture free of its borders, and bring it kicking, screaming and exploding into the places where you’ll least expect it.

What's On

Take Over Festival Programme

Check out the programme below

Black and white image of a protest. A group of women hold a banner which reads 'Women Unite for Women's Liberty'

Nightcleaners

20th Sep 2018
Nightcleaners is a documentary film about the campaign to unionise the women who cleaned office blocks at night and who were being victimised and underpaid by their employers.
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The back of a woman stands in the middle isle of an empty church wearing a bright, orange headscarf and scarf around their shoulder.

Larry Achiampong: Sunday's Best

5th Oct — 16th Nov 2018
Sunday’s Best is a large-scale video projection which brings together the vivid sounds and images of praise and worship sessions in a Ghanaian community church.
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Screenwriter and Novelist Frank Cottrell Boyce stands on a beach against a blue sky holding an ice cream cone with a flake in the air.

Frank Cottrell Boyce

11th Oct — 13th Oct 2018
In partnership with St Helens Libraries, we are celebrating Libraries Week with esteemed writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who will be delivering a series of readings from his popular books including Millions and Sputnik’s Guide to Life.
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Still image from the film Rank and File. A black and white image of a group of men leaning on a fence and behind them a police officer.

The Rank & File

18th Oct 2018
The Rank & File is based on the Pilkington Glass strike that took place in St. Helens in 1970, although for legal reasons the BBC insisted that the firm be renamed Wilkinsons and the action relocated to the Potteries.
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Artist Selina Thompson stands on rocky ground next to a grey sea and clouded sky. She is draped in a long piece of navy fabric which bellows and flies in the wind. Next to Selina on the ground is a mallet and a large chunk of pink salt.

salt.

20th Oct 2018
The critically lauded  Selina Thompson presents the multi-award winning salt. Her visceral, vulnerable and beautiful one woman show retracing of the routes of the Transatlantic Slave Triangle.
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Close up portrait of artist Le Gateau Chocolat with long false eyelashes and colourful eyeshadow.

Le Gateau Chocolat

1st Nov 2018
The opera-occasional, lycra-loving, black-beard, drag-diva Le Gateau Chocolat will present a unique performance of his newest treat, RAW CACAO, in collaboration with a local brass band.
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In a dark theatre 3 large screens suspended to one side. The screen show blueprint maps. A large circle of tables has a person sat at each table and are lit from above. To the side of the stage another table with one person faces towards the circle.

Split Britches: Unexploded Ordnances

8th Nov 2018
Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) is a theatre piece by Split Britches, explores ageing, anxiety, hidden desires and how to look forward when the future is uncertain.
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A woman with blonde hair wears a red glittering dress and holds a microphone smiling. She stands in front of a gold, scalloped curtain.

Funny Cow and Q&A with Maxine Peake

15th Nov 2018
Set against the backdrop of working men’s clubs in the North of England, Funny Cow is both a love-letter to a bygone era and the defiant story of a woman.
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St Helens Town Hall is lit up with a huge multicoloured projection against a night sky.

We Are Still Here

8th Dec 2018
As part of a co-production programme, Mckeown led a number of workshops over 2018 in the lead up to the mass outdoor video projection.
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Artists Eggs Collective stand in silver metallic dresses with arms around each other and leaning with their back against a bar. Two people sit in front of them and are looking up towards them.
Free

A Royal Wrap Party

13th Dec 2018
2018 has been such an incredible year for St Helens!  There’s been lots to celebrate! Our Royal Wrap Party, hosted by Eggs Collective, will bring this year to a close.
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What's On

St Helens Libraries programme

Jonathan Beaver Residency and Exhibition: Taut Fibre
Red letters cross stitched on to white fabric. The letters read 'This is my body. This is my blood'. Red cotton hangs from the lettering.

Residency: Monday 22 – Saturday 27 October (10-4pm), various St Helens libraries. More detail here .

Exhibition: Thursday 15 November - Wednesday 19 December (10-4pm), Moss Bank library

Jonathon Beaver is an embroiderer, animator and arts educator based in Liverpool. He began working with needlepoint at the age of nine, encouraged by an auntie. He uses this traditional craft, often used to mark family occasions and decorate homes, to evoke queer family. Jonathon’s pieces range from small scale to large tapestries reminiscent of work from a bygone era, but bringing an old craft into a contemporary setting through subject matter. His practice takes traditional constructions of gender roles and identities and allows them to be explored and freed from societal shackles. Much of his work is an exploration of his personal gender preferences and identities both as an individual and an artist. Using words and literature as a starting point Jonathon will be in residence at various St.Helens Libraries from Monday 22nd – Saturday 27th October, creating new work for an exhibition at Moss Bank library as part of Take Over Festival & Homotopia in November.

This event is free and drop in.

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