18 Aug Weaving Transformations in the City
In a couple weeks time we’ll be rigging 15 panels of 7-foot-high bamboo looms on a busy high street in Sheffield. Over the course of a week, these looms will form the walls for a kind of living room on The Moor.
In this room, we hope to bring about a small transformation in the city centre: creating a place where we might connect with strangers, learn something new, or feel able to just have a bit of a rest. And where we might feel safe to stay a while, regardless of our gender or ethnicity.
As one participant last year put it:
“Common Threads has helped me to slow down and be present in the city. I’ve walked through this bit of town, but never spent time here. Makes me feel different about this bit of town.”
Whilst we now know first-hand that many wonderful people spend time in this bit of town, it’s also true that it hasn’t got the best reputation: it can be chaotic and isn’t a place many of us feel comfortable to linger in. In many ways, this sentiment was the starting point of the project: that due to gender and/or ethnicity, many of us didn’t feel very safe in the city centre.
With Common Threads, we want to transform the city beyond a place of unease and consumption, and into a space of connection, rest and creativity. We are asking: can we create the way we want the city to be, even if it’s just for a week? And if we did that – could it change how we use and experience the city beyond that one week in September? What is the legacy of this temporary transformation?
From the 9th – 12th September 2026, we’ll be enacting this temporary, utopian transformation for the third time. And as we are, in our heart of hearts, a theatre company, our festival will culminate in a storytelling performance, this year on the theme of transformations. Spin a Yarn brings together folktales and songs of transformations from all over the world. It has a cosy, telling-stories-around-the-campfire atmosphere. And whilst there isn’t an actual campfire, we know from previous experience that audiences leave the show with a warm feeling.
“I truly appreciated the chance to connect with others, and I found the simple act of sharing stories to be incredibly moving.”
We’ll hear of the Lo Ting from Hong Kong, who changes back and forth between fish and human; of mossy coats which transform us into princesses, and snake kings from India who shed their skins to become beautiful men. As we listen to these tales, translated between English, Cantonese and Somali, our hands will be busy, as we all transform raw wool into yarn.
Keeping our hands busy is a core philosophy of Common Threads. Working alongside others can enable us to have different kinds of conversations and invites a slower pace. It also offers passers-by an opportunity to feel ownership over the space by helping to weave a few rows. Practically speaking, it’s a small and simple task, but it symbolises something much larger. This act of building this space together, rehearses a different way our city could be. And that rehearsal can help us to feel that transforming our cities into safer, kinder, social places is a bit more possible.
Common Threads Festival is created in collaboration with the Higsad Alool Weavers, and is delivered in partnership with Re-Water; SunRit Culture Group, Craft Social at Gut Level and the Manor Weavers. Find out more about the 2026 programme on the Common Threads webpage.