Pilot Theatre’s unique installation, A Guide to Now for Those in the Future, is a bold and immersive experience remixing interviews and footage into a vibrant explosion of sight and sound. Capturing the emotions, dreams and perspectives of young people, it acts as a digital time capsule, which reflects life, culture, and concerns in 2025.

Ice into water, liquid into solid, sound into light, noise into music, soundscapes into stories, digital into analogue. This show is a series of sound and light installations with performances, all set around a single, illuminated table. Wonkystuff and The Sounen Project provide the experimental audio landscape guiding the audience through moods.

Creative Ways showcases powerful artworks inspired by York’s rich stained-glass heritage. Created by participants exploring creativity for both wellbeing and belonging, the exhibition celebrates connection, confidence and community and reflects the impact of art. It’s a testament to how art can illuminate lives, hope and foster inclusion.

A spooky short immersive experience for teenagers and the young-at-heart by Erler and Pilot. On Library Lawn meet your guide by her trailer of truth. She’ll drive you to the place where dreams come true. Step inside and take the journey to the crossroads. 5 November, 5 & 6pm | 6 November, 6 & 7pm | 7 November, 12pm, 1pm, 4pm, 5pm

Deep in the cavernous belly of The House Of Trembling Madness, Griffonage Theatre proudly present Kafka By Candlelight. An unsettling adaptation of some of Franz Kafka’s strangest short stories, told in the dark, each piece invites you to confront the bizarre with no guarantee of resolution or escape. Will you be able to stomach it?

Enjoy a screening of Helvetica, a celebration of silent film, and the chance to try letterpress printing. Design and print title cards with the team, capture the process and explore the endangered craft of letterpress printing while embracing the timeless aesthetics of ink. This experience is a chance to explore how film and print intersect.

A view into a dying marriage. Two characters (Henry and Nora) represent the end of a marriage torn apart by the loss of their child, alcoholism and depression. They are joined by their Inner Selves (Henry’s Self and Nora’s Self) who torment them about what their lives could have been. Every interaction is heavy with the things left unsaid.

Improv based on your literary suggestions. The Bluffs take classic short-form improv games and infuse them with storytelling flair. Every show is completely unique, shaped by audience suggestions and spontaneous creativity. Who knows where this evening will take us but it will be entertaining, inventive, and entirely in the moment.

Join York Fire Walk and embark on an unforgettable journey through the city’s fiery history. In the company of expert guides, the Frenchman who saved York from burning to the ground and discover how York Minster popped up in the Land of Fire – and then of course there’s some chap called Fawkes. There’s bound to be fireworks!

The inside shopfront of Fabrication is transformed into a living light installation: an exploration of the coexistence between art and inspiration. The window becomes a canvas where the very act of making becomes a performance of dancing light. Passersby are invited to pause, watch, and reflect on the journey from idea to creation.

An installation inspired by the earth’s sediments. It brings together interviews with local workers, video projections, as well as food and drink to connect us to our physical environment, cultural histories and deep time. Presented in what was a once a bakery, then bottle shop and bar, the installation highlights the change of the site.

Join Alice May for a script-in-hand performance of a new one-woman play and offer feedback to help develop it for stage and screen. A comic tale of a granddaughter caring for her terminally ill grandmother, that asks what caring for someone facing death can teach us. This opportunity invites you to engage with the work in progress.

Drop into Patch for an all vinyl DJ set by Mat Lazenby and Jono spinning a curated mix. Meet local creatives. Grab a drink, chat ideas, find out how to get involved with City Folk magazine, a new publication made in the heart of the city, and be in with a chance to win a print by illustrator Tony Allen. This event is the perfect way to connect.

Leap into the unknown, through disposable cameras, polaroids and early iPhones. This is a tale of youthful ambition and the quest to craft an identity through the tumultuous years of young adulthood, comprising an exhibition, a photobook launch and short performances. Audiences are invited to reflect on who they are amidst their youth.

In Iron Age Ulster, stories travelled from the mouths of bards into the ears of everyone else, with nothing written down. Earning four stars at the Edinburgh Fringe 2024, Lara’s show offers a gnarly earful of ancient Ulsterwomen who used sex as a weapon – or, at least, so said the bards. The performance unpacks these bold yet provocative tales.

A semi-generative particle system moves to an evocative mix of electronica, ambient, orchestral and techno sound. Immersive visuals and rich soundscapes merge, creating a mesmerising, cinematic experience that seamlessly blurs the boundaries between sight, sound, and emotion. The piece explores movement, transformation, and connectivity.

All Lara wanted was an easy job as she started to write her novel. But she is confronted with the sexist, stressful and chaotic reality of the service industry. This one-woman show arrives at Aesthetica Fringe in York after an impressive four-star run at the Edinburgh Fringe, with sharp humour, artistic ambition and raw honesty.

Sophie is dead. Probably. She thinks. Maybe. How could the happiest time of her life turn to this? This a rehearsed reading of In Limbo, a play about the realities of early parenthood and postpartum depression. A feedback session will follow the performance to help shape and deepen the development of the show.

Join The Storytelling Ensemble for tales brought vividly to life with improvised music and original composition. Led by storyteller and composer Joe Allen, the ensemble breathes new life into fascinating fables and yearnful yarns, contributing to the magic of stories told aloud, inviting listeners to lose themselves in worlds’ ancient and new.

Always fancied yourself taking to the stage to try out one of Shakespeare’s great soliloquies? Bard at the Bar is a raucous, no-holds-barred night of “karaoke” Shakespeare. This is your opportunity to grab a drink, take a script, and climb onto the stage to perform your favourite scenes. No experience necessary, just bring passion.

This is a play about Lillie-Rose & Clive, a relatable and seemingly normal couple. Lillie-Rose comes home with a lie detector, imagining a fun date night in with Clive, however, things get more and more sinister as the night progresses. Interrogation gets intense, exposing the fragile boundaries beneath the surface of their broken relationship.