...I did go as a member of the public on Saturday and had a whale of a time, but I volunteered on Friday and Sunday and thus declare an interest.
I know, to various extents, three of the artists (though one's the lovely @dreamcat group so arguably 7) and probably knew another 10 or 15 of the attendees to some extent. A big part of my great time was due to catching up with lovely people, some of which I hadn't seen since university. Privilege up the wazoo, thus don't trust me.
As previously suggested, this weekend was Voidspace Live. I had a fantastic time, one of the very best weekends of my year so far. It was the biggest one yet, clearly the best in some regards and I don't think the shows were any less good than those of previous years.
But I think I'm no longer qualified to speak neutrally as a reviewer on this, so you should take my word for it only with a very large pinch of salt, and I'll tell you why...
The full show base ticket price is £65/day plus fees (or more with donations, or less for self-certified concessions) which is not cheap, but the Art Show Pass at £15/day is an absolute steal.
Many of the things that I am most attracted towards, and several of which I have already enjoyed at Voidspace's Strange Play Showcase and thus vouch for, are covered by the Art Show Pass.
Full disclosure: I'll be volunteering for part of it. Crash space may potentially be available. #voidspaceLive
You might recall I went to Voidspace Live last year and considered it to be an absolute banger, as reacted to here at https://discord.com/channels/1036657633907703899/1500906627954638901/1500909543310495826 - the 2026 programme is available at https://voidspacezine.com/voidspace-live-2026-show-strand/ and I have described it as looking even banger-er, which should rightly be interpreted as "even more to my taste".
If you can get to London on 6th/7th June and this looks like your cup of tea then you should consider doing so. #voidspaceLive
Two other big plus points about #VoidspaceLive for me:
1) the audience included several very heavy hitters in the field - I could name-drop but everyone deserves privacy, whether a big name or not. Absolutely the right company of playful folk with whom to see, and play, the shows in their best light, making the shows better.
2) pervasive games and fun going on in the background throughout, thoughtfully interleaved with the shows, even though I'm sure there was a lot I missed out on.
#VoidspaceLive as a whole was _m-u-c-h_ more than the sum of its parts. I'd say all six shows I went to were hits rather than "a swing and a miss" (maybe two of them were bunts at worst) but I wouldn't say any of them was a home run in its current state.
And that's OK! This is absolutely what a festival like Voidspace Live is for, and why I'm very glad it exists in its current form, and why I'm excited already about what it might be in the future.
#VoidspaceLive Sunday eve: _Mind Control Disco_: an AI creates and guides a disco party so that all can join in without feeling self-conscious; rebels occasionally gatecrash the audio for those who do not need such direction on the dancefloor.
Bad fit for me - I had only the stamina for about five or ten minutes, as did many other players. (Maybe the slot at the end didn't help.) I also struggled a bit with making out the AI's commands through the voice distortion.
You may have seen temporary evidence of one of those rounds earlier - I've redacted it for spoiler-proofing, though the Mastodon-to-bluesky bridge can't deal with edits so I guess they're out there for good. At least only a handful of people subscribe via the bsky bridge so not many will have seen.
Maybe the existence of spoilers hurts a little; I'd seen what was needed from the first playing at #VoidspaceLive, took an "fail to prepare, prepare to fail" approach and had cued some friends up.
#VoidspaceLive Sunday pm: _Save The Raccoon_, a reflection on how many hoops the world makes immigrants jump through to fit in, presented as a three-round audience participation game. (Game show? Arguably, but can a show of a game be a game show if it's not shown to anybody? I'd say not.)
Compared to its cohort, strong ideas for rounds and for generating ways to play; the presentation was notably spiky, but absolutely a contextually appropriate decision.
(#VoidspaceLive, Continuum, Et Al Productions)
...to keep things in motion and to keep everyone as involved as they want to be. As funny as you'd hope in parts, beautiful in others, scope for delightful playfulness and enough constraint to keep it on the right side of the line between chaos and a mess.
A highlight was a friend lip-synching _hard_ to Bohemian Rhapsody, _all_ of it, having forgotten just how much he had bitten off and volunteered to chew.
I'm sure there's more I was missing.
Chris D.