Sensoria festival is a great opportunity for Sheffield's creatives

This year’s festival marks the resumption of in-person events, after Covid-19 forced Sensoria online last year, and will be held across multiple venues in the city centre including the S1 Artspace; Site Gallery and The University of Sheffield Drama Studio.

In addition to attracting artists and performers including film and television producer, Paul Farrer and Cornish-Welsh musician and Welsh Music Prize winner Gwenno Saunders; Sensoria, which runs between October 1 and 9, is also set to bring scores of visitors and industry insiders to the city for the Sensoria Pro part of the festival.

Being associated with such a unique mix of live performance, film screenings, installations, exhibitions plus music and film industry activity is a great opportunity for Sheffield.

It’s also a great opportunity for the city’s creative sector, and this year in particular, because the organisers have decided to use this year’s festival showcase the incredible talent on offer in Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

As a result, this year over 75 per cent of the artists involved in the festival overall are based in Sheffield, and at least half are female.

Sensoria director, Jo Wingate, said: "We had a lot of submissions from local artists, which we were pleased with. We thought if ever there was a time to showcase the amazing talent in South Yorkshire this was it. We thought: ‘We’ve got to give them a platform,’ and that’s why we chose what we did. We’re very happy with the line-up,” said Jo.

Every year, the festival takes submissions from artists, performers and creatives; and hopefully seeing so many local acts chosen for the festival will empower even more to submit this year.

Those chosen to be part of the line-up are in good company.

Since it began in 2008, the festival has welcomed the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Bill Drummond, Richard Hawley, Forgemasters, Chris and Cosey, Laurie Anderson, Nitin Sawhney, Christopher Eccleston, Jlin, DJ Stingray and many more.

Sensoria has also become renowned for its use of unusual venues for its use of unusual venues including city centre drive-ins, swimming pool screenings and an AV installation in a 60s hotel ballroom