University’s Annual Festival of Bold and Brilliant Art Returns to Lincoln

Held at the Brayford Pool Campus and various places throughout the city from 6 May to 13 June 2025, the festival showcases a multidisciplinary range of creative endeavours from professional artists, performers, and creatives – all made during their studies at the University. Audiences will have the opportunity to experience exhibitions, music and dance, watch film screenings and contemporary theatre.

Events will include the student-curated Nebula Music Festival (16 and 17 May), a two-day programme of live music of genres for all tastes, and the annual LSCA Dance Showcase (15 May) – a spectacular evening of contemporary dance and choreography from students, staff, and visiting guest artists in Lincoln Arts Centre (LAC).

First year students from the Drama, Theatre and Performance BA (Hons) degree will present their work on the LAC main stage for the first time, created under the direction of professional theatre performers, alongside third year students who have formed their own professional companies and will be presenting their work in a week of new theatre called BLOOM.

Katie Seller, third year Drama, Theatre and Performance BA (Hons) student and Sparky Sparky Boom theatre company member, commented: “We’re really excited to be involved in Launchfest 2025 and are looking forward to sharing what we have been working on. Our debut show uses theatre to ask questions about politics and provoke honest discussion about how we use our vote.”

Other new shows running will include a “whodunnit” set in a casino, a humorous journey through the afterlife, an imagined ritual to save an ecosystem under threat, and a retelling of the infamous 19th Century Chicago ‘Murder Castle Case’.

Planning for the LSCA Fine Art BA (Hons) degree show is also underway, and the University’s Project Space Plus Gallery will be opening its doors to the public on 6 June for the new exhibition Everything is Fine(Art) featuring the work of over 30 artists across the gallery and studio spaces. Entry is free and all are welcome.

Musical Theatre BA (Hons) students will showcase two brand new musicals as part of the festival, The Road by Sam Thomas, which follows the story of a former teen star whose life is unravelling, and Killing Time in Darkminster by Clare Packham and Fintan Kealy, set in a shadowy town at a strange choir school.

The LAC will host Nickelodeon’s The SpongeBob Musical on 6 and 7 June.

Elsewhere in the festival, there is theatre for the very young in Lucy and the Crow (24 May), two special screenings of new film and animation at Lincoln’s Everyman Cinema, poetry and the launch of Issue 6 of The Lincoln Review, an international literary journal published annually by the creative writing programmes at the University of Lincoln, showcasing established, emerging, and underrepresented voices from around the world.

Professor Andrew Westerside, Head of the School of Creative Arts at the University of Lincoln said: “I’m incredibly proud to welcome audiences to our fourth annual Launchfest, our end-of-year showcase of work for students across the School. This year, we’ve welcomed new industry-facing courses in film, media, sound production, animation and the moving image into the School and I’m looking forward to seeing their work at the end of year screenings.”

“Every year I’m delighted by the high-quality, thoughtful and thought-provoking work that comes out of all our courses. The staff and students of the School bring such creativity, imagination and professionalism to what they do that I know audiences will be in for a wonderful experience, whichever events they choose to attend.”

Further information and full event listings are available online: https://lncn.ac/launch25.