Weds 2nd July - Sunday 6th July | Festival Website, YouTube, Social Media
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An Indian Summer Festival 2026
Inspirate’s flagship festival, An Indian Summer, is back from Wednesday 1st July to Sunday 5th July 2026, bringing a fresh, bold and unique programme of contemporary South Asian arts and culture to Leicester.
This year’s programme features open-air and indoor events happening in venues across the city, including Attenborough Arts Centre, Jubilee Square and the historic surroundings of Leicester Cathedral and Guildhall. Showcasing original work by South Asian artists from across the UK, this year’s festival programme features bold theatre, cutting-edge dance, live music, puppetry, film and visual arts.
Thank you to all the artists, partner organisations and funders who have worked closely with us to create a vibrant festival programme that spans across the city.
With thanks also to Without Walls and Art Reach, with whom we have partnered with to co-commission, support and platform new work by South Asian artists.
Cycles & Circles
Across South Asia and its diasporas, life is often perceived beyond straight lines, blocks of time and linear pathways. It is something much more expansive and fluid than this, a journey travelled through cycles, circles, repeating patterns and spontaneous rhythms.
As we move within, through and between our different phases and seasons, we carry the memories and stories that have shaped us. With every cycle of becoming is always a series of returns, honouring all that has come before while making space for rebirth and renewal. We open and close chapters multiple times, beginning again and again and again. We ebb and flow through who we have been, who we are now and the future self we are growing into.
Cycles remind us that change does not mean leaving everything behind, but moving forward with moments cherished, lessons learnt, the courage to challenge and disrupt, embracing the possibilities of all that lies ahead.
As we evolve, our search for circles is ever present, communal places where we can gather with others, be held and nurtured, sharing our individual presence whilst building collective energy. The two inter-connect and co-exist, we enter growth and transformation whilst also seeking a deep sense of home and the quiet joy of belonging.
This year’s festival programme brings together South Asian artists from a wide range of disciplines and art forms. Together, we delve into the layers and complexities of this theme, offering a richness of stories, ritual and artistic exploration where past, present and imagined futures merge and weave together.
