b-side today releases the full 2026 festival programme for That Other Place, part of its six-year Common Lands project exploring land, identity, and belonging on the Isle of Portland. Running 10th to 13th September (launch party 9th September), the free festival transforms Portland’s streets, quarries and coastline into a parallel Portland, inspired by the island’s unique oddness and a lost Portland Fair. Fifteen commissioned artists already announced are joined by a full after dark trail, a closing island wide parade, and a Fringe programme run by more than forty local artists and community groups.
As Rocca Holly-Nambi, Director of b-side, puts it: “Portland already has a fascinating sense of otherness. What b-side does is bring that into conversation with artists working at an international level – from artists whose work is held in the Smithsonian, to Turner Prize nominees, to dance artists whose work has reached millions of people online. Encounters between artists, communities and landscape are at the heart of what b-side is all about.”
WHERE INTERNATIONAL ART MEETS ISLAND OTHERNESS.
Jim Chuchu – In 2018, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art acquired and exhibited his video works Invocation: The Severance of Ties and Invocation: Release. This will be projected at large scale as part of b-side Nights.
Rory Pilgrim – Turner Prize nominated; returns Go Find Miracles, made with men from HMP/YOI Portland, to the quarry where it was recorded.
Jamal Sterrett – Brooklyn based movement artist, performing site specific works shaped by Portland’s cliffs and quarries across the weekend.
Diverse City – the UK’s leading disability-led theatre company, marking 20 years, opens the festival and leads inclusive practice workshops.
Iris Prize – the world’s largest LGBTQ+ short film prize brings Iris on the Move to the Royal Manor Theatre.
The Land Remains – filmed over the course of a year, The Land Remains explores Britain’s renewed fascination with folklore and seasonal ritual alongside the presence of the Bibby Stockholm Barge. It begins its south west tour at the Festival.
PORTLAND ARTISTS & THE B-SIDE FRINGE
The international line-up sits alongside artists rooted on the island itself.
Paul Le Keux, a Portland resident, curates Royal Mannerisms, a live evening of stories, songs and folklore told by islanders and those with deep connections to Portland.
David Palmer, a Dorset resident whose family archive of Portland Fair photographs helped inspire this year’s festival, shares highlights from the collection at Café Ope: Portland Fair.
LGBTQ+Side, a Portland-based community group, created the Sea of Flags installation that welcomes visitors to the island.
Beyond the main programme, the b-side Fringe runs more than forty additional events – open studios, workshops and exhibitions – almost all of them run by island based artists, makers and community groups.
AFTER DARK AND THE FINALE
On Friday 11th and Saturday 12th September, 8pm to 9.30pm, the festival changes character after dark. Among the highlights is And So Our Shadows Dance by Light Space Colour (Dawn Parsonage and Peter Hudson): giant shadow projections, built from cardboard, old toys and archive photographs, sent dancing across Portland’s buildings. Visitors can make their own fairground shadow puppet from cut-outs and coloured gels during the first 45 minutes, before watching it grow to monumental scale.
Elsewhere, further large-scale projections and sound trails transform Chiswell and Fortuneswell, and the festival closes with the Portland Parade on Sunday 13th September, led through Easton by Tongues of Fire.
WHY HERE?
Portland has around 13,000 residents, a working quarry and a history of military occupation – and, each September, an arts festival that draws internationally recognised artists to its clifftops and narrow streets. b-side’s model is to make ambitious contemporary art free and public, without the gallery admission or cultural and socio-economic barriers that make art less accessible – and to make it with the island, not just on it. Young people from Portland co-created Whispers from the Wood with artist Liz Lake; men at HMP/YOI Portland contributed to Rory Pilgrim’s Go Find Miracles; the LGBTQ+Side community group created the Sea of Flags installation. A dedicated Festival Info Hub, an access guide and free sensory bags support disabled and neurodivergent visitors throughout.
INVITATION TO PRESS
b-side is inviting journalists to visit Portland during the festival, meet and interview participating artists, and see first-hand how a rural island community hosts work of an international calibre. Accommodation can be arranged for visiting press.
b-side 2026: That Other Place runs 10th to 13th September on the Isle of Portland, Dorset (launch party 9th September). The b-side Fringe and Portland Parade run alongside the main programme. All commissioned work is free and open to the public. For press enquiries, interview requests and image requests: pippa@inthebagpr.co.uk www.b-side.org.uk
[HEADER IMAGE: Jamal Sterrett photo credit Fred Macgreogor]
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