• SPILL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMANCE 

  ON PROXIMITY

• (2012)

Live • International •  Artist-led • Ipswich

SPILL Festival 2012 was the first of the Ipswich Festivals, taking place across the town over five days. The programme included 120 live events, including the world premiere of Empress Stah in Space by Empress Stah with Ron Athey, Lydia Lunch & Peaches, the SPILL National Platform, SPILL Onscreen, a SPILL Study Cafe taking over the Town Hall, the SPILL Think Tank programme, SPILL Writing, SPILL Feasts, and SPILL TV & Photography.

SPILL 2012 saw the festival become annual and move to Ipswich, alternating between there and London over the next four years before eventually becoming solely Ipswich-based in 2018. A truly packed international programme of arts and activism made for an intense five days, attracting large audiences from across the country and around the world. SPILL 2012 opened up a range of sites across the town that had not previously been used for live art, with everything within walking distance - a significant difference to London, and one which afforded a stronger sense of everyone being together at the festival.

Curated around the theme of Proximity, this edition asked: what does it mean to present experimental work in a market town such as Ipswich? With the early spectre of what would eventually become Brexit already looming, were we near to, or far from, London or Europe? What might it mean for audiences to encounter such a density of radical practice in a five-day hit? We found out through 60 uncompromising live projects, presented across 120 live events, a bumper SPILL National Platform, and a large programme of installations, screenings, talks, gigs and parties. SPILL, and Ipswich, were both changed in ways which would become the bedrock of the festival's future.