The Embassy of Utopia came to Manchester Central Library in June 2024 as part of Festival of Libraries for its UK premiere, and was a collaboration between Manchester UNESCO City of Literature and Capital of Culture 2024 Tartu UNESCO City of Literature. Due to popular demand, we are running this event again for Festival of Libraries 2025.

Artist and writer David Hartley will host over 60 performances during this year’s Embassy of Utopia event, where bold individuals and community groups have been invited to share reflections on the theme of eco-futures and ecology in the broadest sense. Performances from members of Dragons Voice CIC and The Poetry Place, our very own multilingual city poet Nóra Blascsók, community members from the Let’s Talk Rochdale group, international artists from Quebec, Tartu and Nanjing, and work developed via a special collaboration with the Sonder Radio Community will be programmed throughout the day. Expect storytelling, academic reflections, poetry, music, and more.

Please note that no hate speech will be tolerated and that there will be photography on the day.