2023 - L'ALTRE FESTIVAL

We are happy to annouce that l’Altre International Perfoming Arts and Mental Health Festival will take place in Barcelona on May 31 till June 2, 2024. If you are a company representing people with mental health problems and without, or relatives, or mental health professionals, or friends, or performing arts professionals, or you have a project related to performing arts and mental health, please send us your proposal!

To present your artistic proposal at l’Altre Festival 2024, fill in the application form in the corresponding tab according to the type of company (amateur, non-binary or professional). The call will remain open until January 26, 2024. The selected shows will be announced from February 19, 2024.

The call for proposal counts with the support of:

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or [name of the granting authority]. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Welcome to l’Altre Festival 2023!

We can loose the thread in our life sometimes.

Join us and see the ninth edition of l’Altre Festival in Fabra i Coats venue, Barcelona. More than 35 shows, theater, music, dance and much more. Looking forward to see you in 2024!

“Art empowers instead of hiding, and increases the possibility of self-awareness and self-understanding, especially in an era of alienation and continuous crises…”

The FEARTY team visited l’Altre Festival 2023 and discovered, among other things, how dance can help us to recover different kinds of mental health problems in our lives. Together with more than 50 youngsters they participated on the workshop related to collective mental health. The workshop was held by the Ukrainian psychologist from the Association Djerelo and Yana Reutova, professional dancer from Ukraine who found her new sheltered home in Prague (the Czech Republic).

“This festival was a great way to see how informality and casualness can work well in gathering people of all kinds in a space that provides safety, respect, diversity and a lot of fun. Definitely a useful event to keep in mind on how to approach art, mental health and youth.”

The FEARTY team is composed by 4 partners: ISPS Italy, Festival MENTAL from Portugal, EDRA from Greece and l’Altre Festival from Spain.

L’Altre Festival is coming this weekend from 9 till 11 of June. It means that the FEARTY team visits Barcelona. They will attend the international Performing Arts and Mental Health festival in Barcelona, discovering more than 30 shows and they will participate in the workshop after the show “Together Alone” from Yana Reutova Dance.

Chornomorsk, Odesa, Lviv, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhia… cities on the map of Ukraine that the dancers left in search of safety in the EU after the war broke out. Their stories are different, but they have one thing in common: they all fled from an occupied country and are confronted daily with the trauma, uncertainty and fear that comes with being a refugee in a foreign land. The FEARTY team, together with more than 50 youngsters, will discuss the importance of our collective mental health and how dance can help us to recover different kinds of mental health problems in our lives.

Different social groups and their stories require that creators have a specific capacity for listening and close observation. Which processes should we develop in order to uncover marginalised issues? We are interested in the methods and tools we can use in our theatrical work to ensure the sensitivity and openness needed during interviews. We want to share the experience of collecting stories and to discuss strategies for gathering material for documentary theatre projects.

On April 27, 2023 at 6 pm you can join us on the first in a series of online expert debates will take place, organized by the Czech independent theater collective Nesladim in co-production with l’Altre Festival, international performing arts and mental health festival. We have the honor of welcoming international guests, performer James Leadbitter (UK) and performer Viki Brown (UK).

The aim of the debates is to find areas of overlap between theatrical productions and a wide range of topics covering mental health, mental hygiene and ethics. The starting point for this project is to map out a network of European theatres dealing with these issues and, subsequently, to share theatre-related experiences. The debates are aimed at a professional, as well as a wider audience, with an interest in documentary theatre and its various forms.

How can arts and culture address the multiple expressions of troubled young minds when facing the crises of our time? That was one of the questions of the Brainstorming Report “Youth, Mental Health and Culture” which is now available on the website of Voices of Culture. This report explores the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being. L’Altre Festival, one of the member of the project “Festivals, Art Therapy and Young People “FEARTY”, had the opportunity to work and to participate on the report’s creation.

FEARTY is a project funded by Erasmus+ program and this year it continues working on the strategies to arrive to young people through arts and art therapy, in order to promote wellbeing and prevent mental health problems.

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Call for proposals 2024

L’Altre Festival 2023 video

How Performing Arts can help to heal the collective Mental Health

FEARTY visit in Barcelona

Strategies for gathering material for documentary theatre projects

Youth, Mental Health and Culture

¡Tic Tac!

Crits que habiten

Narratives around mental health and arts