Hazard


Interventions in Manchester City Centre.

Updated 8 February 2024

Hazard is our biennial micro-festival of incidental intervention and sited performance — blurring the boundaries between art and activism…

Our eighth Hazard was a Gambit in St Ann’s Square on 20 August 2022 — a game of strategy came to life, as human chess pieces invaded Manchester City Centre in a new kind of powerplay: turning the tables on the traditional order. A playful intervention — see a gallery of images from the day.

Gambit by Proud & Loud Arts presented by Word of Warning; a hÅb (Hazard 2022) commission; co-produced with Proud & Loud Arts.

Enquiries: hazard@habmcr.org · hazardmcr.org · #HazardMcr

Past Editions

Our seventh Hazard popped up in central Manchester on 4 August 2018, with shadowy figures moving silently through the city streets, playing, questioning, exploring visibility and vulnerability… See images from the day.

Hazard 2018: Shadow Girl — the city streets by Chrissy Jones presented by Word of Warning + Proud & Loud Arts; supported using public funding by Arts Council England and by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Since 2007 over 125 artists have taken to the streets of Manchester, including Action Hero, Alex Bradley, Ali Wilson, Chinasa Vivian Ezugha, Instant Dissidence, Jordan Mackenzie, Juliann O’Malley, Katherina Radeva, Kris Canavan, Michael Pinchbeck, Nicola Hunter, Proud & Loud Arts, Richard DeDomenici, Sexcentenary, Shahram Entekhabi, and the vacuum cleaner.

We’ve wrapped Cathedral Gardens in fluttering hazard tape, hosted the world’s slowest fairground ride, moved the goalposts (literally), witnessed breastfeeding in a shop window, and conducted a hoola-hoopathon — while The Larks had the public riddling, racing, and chasing as urban archaeologists and private investigators, injecting mass gaming into St Ann’s Square + beyond…

For a glimpse of previous outbreaks of hazardous behaviour see 2016’s image gallery + programme; delve further with 2014’s image gallery + programme; go even further back with 2012’s gallery + programme.