We’re large followers of All Flows, the boutique inventive pageant, which returns for its fourth version on 13–15 Could 2026. So it is nice to listen to that co-founders Richard Wiggins and Simon Wright don’t have any intention of shedding what makes it particular.
“Our venue has a capability of round 200,” explains Richard. “And there is a degree of intimacy with that. Ever since our first version, in 2023, we’re listening to folks say they actually get pleasure from that: each our audio system and our viewers.”
So who’s on stage? It is an eclectic combine… and that is fully the purpose.
“We do not have a theme,” says Richard. “And we’re intentionally fairly broad by way of inventive disciplines, in order that may very well be pictures, promoting, graphic design, movement design, materiality, sound and past.”
2026 lineup
This yr’s speaker roster continues to be within the making, however it’s already shaping as much as be a dream lineup.
There’s the visible artist Vasjen Katro, aka Baugasm, whose daring experimental work has gained worldwide recognition. Inventive director DINES is a powerhouse within the world inventive scene. Madrid-based artist Paloma Rincón, whose apply spans pictures, movement and design.
Elsewhere, documentary photographer Olivia Arthur discusses her acclaimed work, while artist Rob Draper provides insights from his multidisciplinary apply. And that is to not point out Pip Jamieson, founding father of The Dots, Christie Morgan, founding father of Pitch Studios, and Pali Palavathanan of Templo, with additional names nonetheless to be introduced.
Quite than seeing this breadth as a advertising and marketing problem, the pair have leaned into it. “Simon and I are considering a number of completely different areas, and I believe lots of people do, proper?” causes Richard. “You may work as a graphic designer, however you at all times have an curiosity in different areas. And that is the suggestions attendees are continuously giving us. ‘Even when it isn’t their subject per se, there may be at all times one thing audiences can take away from every presentation.”
Connection over scale
The actual magic of All Flows is not simply in who speaks, although; it is in what occurs in between. “We curate occasions to present time between the talks, so folks can actually join, have conversations, chat with the audio system,” explains Richard. “We encourage our audio system to stay round for as a lot as attainable. We’ll pay for a lodge for a number of nights if they’ll keep. And customarily, if they’ll, they’ll. They have an inclination to actually get pleasure from it and infrequently attempt to come again subsequent yr themselves. We have had suggestions the place folks find yourself going for lunch or having a drink with the audio system, and that makes for a very particular ambiance.”
It is a stark distinction to the expertise at bigger festivals. “Large occasions might be nice,” says Richard. “However typically you aren’t getting to attach very simply as a result of there are too many individuals. It is such as you’re in a sea of individuals, like at an airport.”
The Milton Keynes query
It is hanging how passionate Richard and Simon are in regards to the metropolis wherein All Flows takes place. “Some folks nonetheless consider Milton Keynes by way of roundabouts and concrete cows,” sighs Simon. “That is largely what’s typically peddled within the press and in folks’s jokes. ‘It is soulless, it is received no tradition.’ However while these concrete cows are a lot derided, it is truly a public paintings created with the early residents. The way in which Milton Keynes Growth Company built-in artists into constructing a brand new group is a vital a part of the story right here.”
Simon, whose background is in modern artwork and who spent 15 years on the metropolis’s foremost public gallery, is very invested in telling that fuller story. “There have been some very attention-grabbing, radical concepts being examined out right here within the 70s,” he enthuses. “Milton Keynes was a key a part of the broader group arts motion within the UK via organisations like Interplay. Considered one of their initiatives, Channel 40 (a grassroots cable tv station that documented the tales of early residents within the metropolis), was featured in a latest exhibition at Raven Row.”
The town’s youth is a part of its attraction, he provides. “It is solely 60 years previous, and what it is achieved in a very brief time frame—how radical the city design and structure is, how forward-thinking they had been by way of group growth, how know-how has been actually embraced—it is a actually wealthy and attention-grabbing story, notably inside the UK.”
Depth over breath
At present, All Flows is changing into an vital a part of that story. As Simon places it: “There’s one thing actually particular about its intimate scale. Witnessing the way in which audio system and audiences work together over the three days underlines the significance of coming collectively as a group to share concepts and experiences.”
In a inventive world that always assumes that greater means higher, All Flows is proving that essentially the most significant experiences can occur whenever you select depth over breadth.
