Leon Patel (Director Of Global Grooves)

Leon Patel, Director of Manchester’s renowned carnival arts organisation Global Grooves. Leon is currently in Barcelona for La Mercè Festival as part of a major collaboration between Without Walls and XTRAX.

 

What does it mean to you to represent Manchester as part of the Guest City programme at La Mercè?

It is both an honour and a responsibility. When Manchester is invited to stand on the international stage, the risk is always that “Manchester” becomes shorthand for the city centre or for its most famous exports such as football, pop music, or established institutions. But the Manchester story is far more complex.

 

For us, representing Manchester means representing Tameside, Oldham, Mossley and the wider city region. These places are often left out of the cultural narrative, yet they are rich with histories of industry, working-class resilience, and the contributions of communities who have arrived from across the world. Culture here is not just consumed; it is created and sustained by communities themselves. It is passed on in mills that have become cultural venues, in community halls, bedroom studios, through volunteers and intergenerational exchange.

 

Too often the voices of these places are under-invested in and overlooked, even though they are arguably among the most important cultural voices we have. They are rooted in lived experience and born of collective effort. They are the traditions that communities care about most deeply, carrying resilience, pride and identity in ways that mainstream culture sometimes struggles to hold. Yet they are rarely given the profile they deserve.

 

To stand at La Mercè is to insist that these art forms, including folk, roots, Carnival and diasporic practice, are not fringe but fundamental. They are sophisticated, rigorous and relevant.

It also matters that we do this now. Communities in the UK are under pressure and cohesion is strained, while national debate around migration and identity is often dominated by divisive voices. Across politics and the media, there is a growing narrative that frames difference as a threat rather than a strength. Against that backdrop, our presence in Barcelona becomes more than a performance; it is a statement. It is protest through celebration, through Carnival procession, a demonstration of how people from many backgrounds can create together in harmony.

 

By bringing traditions from across Greater Manchester into dialogue, we show that cultural practices rooted in migration, labour, and community pride are not in conflict but in conversation. This is how we counter negative narratives: by making visible the reality that our differences, when held with care, strengthen the whole. The Guest City frame has helped unlock and recognise this breadth of Manchester’s culture on an international stage, affirming that our region’s story is one of collaboration, resilience, and shared humanity.

 

And it has been an honour to be welcomed so warmly into Catalonia’s own deep traditions and civic celebrations. Through artist exchanges and the connections we have forged, we have not only shared our culture but been invited into theirs, a true act of generosity that strengthens the bonds between our communities.

 

What excites you most about performing in Barcelona and sharing your work with an international audience?

 

Barcelona is a city where tradition and innovation breathe together. The gegants, the castells, the Balls de Bastons, the beasts and dragons of the cercavila, and the fire of the correfoc are not relics but living rituals that animate civic space. They hold deep meaning for local people and create a civic stage where heritage and contemporary life meet. That creates a context where our work will be understood not as a curiosity, but as part of a shared global conversation about tradition, labour, and identity.

 

The greatest excitement is not performing to Barcelona, but performing with Barcelona. Through ongoing exchange, Catalan artists, photographers and traditional groups are connecting with us, keen to meet and share practice. This is about expanding the Global Grooves family into Barcelona and welcoming Catalan traditions into our story.

 

Equally important is the empowerment this project gives to our own artists and communities. The work has been co-created by local people who have shared skills, created textiles, shaped choreography and contributed their cultural capital. With XTRAX, La Mercè and city partners, we have provided the platform that gives those voices agency and visibility. The real thrill is watching participants grow in confidence, take ownership of their culture and stand proudly on an international stage. This is about communities seeing themselves reflected in public space, not hidden on the margins.

 

The legacy is as important as the premiere. La Mercè is not an endpoint but the beginning of new connections, friendships and collaborations that will continue long after the festival.

 

How did the concept for this performance first take shape?

It began with a metaphor: the bee. Manchester’s Worker Bee is a civic emblem born of the Industrial Revolution, but bees are more than symbols; they are systems. They embody labour, collective survival and transformation. In the tension between the Worker and the Queen we found a way to ask larger questions about labour, power, invisibility and recognition.

 

From that metaphor grew two monumental forms. The Queen Bee draws on Carnival Queens and Cotton Queens and is clothed in a gown made through a community textile programme across Manchester’s global communities, developed through an international residency at The Vale. Her costume honours women as leaders, makers and custodians of heritage, and every stitch carries the stories of the hands that created it. She is also a figure of protest, echoing the spirit of the suffragettes who marched in Manchester a century ago, a reminder that public celebration can also be an act of defiance, and that women’s creativity and leadership have always been central to movements for change.

 

The Worker Bee, by contrast, is forged from reclaimed bicycle parts and salvaged metal. She is not automated or mechanised but animated through human effort, her movement entirely powered by people labouring together. Her wings and body are lit with resin-set silks that echo the Queen’s textiles, making visible the threads of connection between labour and leadership. In her, Mancunian graft and resilience become kinetic energy. She reminds us that progress, community and creativity are never abstract, they are driven by collective human endeavour.

 

Crucially, the work was seeded through international exchange in Tameside. Artists from Greater Manchester and Catalonia have collaborated in design and making, immediately recognising both the connections and differences in their traditions. The same spirit of generosity and curiosity has guided the partnership with Cabasa CIC on visual development and the relationships between Saddleworth Women’s Morris and the Indian Association Oldham in dance.

 

Around the bees, we set choreography as dialogue rather than fusion. Saddleworth Women’s Morris and the Indian Association Oldham bring distinct vocabularies into conversation, joined by a maypole ritual formed from the Queen’s gown. This approach deliberately resonates with Catalonia’s own traditions, particularly Balls de Bastons, highlighting common threads of rhythm, symbolism and community identity across cultures.

 

Music is the unifying pulse. A newly commissioned live score by Jack Tinker and Emma Marsh is being developed with the dancers and wider creative team. It reflects the exchange between Greater Manchester and Barcelona, drawing on industrial textures, South Asian percussion, Afro-diasporic rhythm, Catalan street music, local brass traditions, jazz, funk and the melodic instrumentation of North West Morris. We are sharing the score with Catalan musicians for collaborative performances at La Mercè, alongside traditional Morris musicians from Greater Manchester.

 

So the concept did not arrive ready-made. It has grown from Manchester’s history, co-created with communities and inherited traditions, and from a commitment to keep each form legible while allowing it to breathe and evolve with integrity.

 

How has the collaboration with XTRAX supported or shaped this artistic experience?

 

Global Grooves and XTRAX bring very different kinds of expertise, and it is the meeting of those strengths that has made this project possible.

 

XTRAX is widely respected for its sector leadership in outdoor arts, its commissioning platform, and its ability to connect artists with international festivals. They bring reach, networks and credibility, ensuring that new work is recognised and positioned within a professional frame.

 

Global Grooves brings something different but equally vital: deep roots in community, a practice shaped by intercultural dialogue, and decades of experience in producing large-scale Carnival, music and dance with rigour and care. Our expertise lies in co-creation that does not dilute traditions but allows them to meet, breathe and grow with integrity.

 

On their own, these strengths would not be enough. Commissioning without community risks becoming detached; community energy without professional advocacy risks being overlooked. But together, they unlock something powerful. The XTRAX commission not only gave us the resources to create at scale, it also unlocked further investment from Oldham and Tameside Councils, embedding local support in an international opportunity. And Global Grooves’ leadership ensured that those resources translated into a work that is genuinely authored by communities, not imposed upon them.

 

This partnership has allowed the cultural capital of our communities to be seen and valued on a global stage. It has combined international advocacy with local authorship, sector leadership with lived expertise, and in doing so it has created the conditions for Greater Manchester’s voices to stand tall in Barcelona, authentic, ambitious and unafraid to celebrate who we are.

 

What do you hope audiences in Barcelona will take away from experiencing your performance? Outdoor arts and procession are powerful because they take place on the flat of the floor, eye to eye with audiences. Some people will come especially to see the show. Others will simply be stopped in their tracks while shopping, commuting, or meeting friends, suddenly caught up in an unexpected spectacle. That openness is what makes outdoor performance unique: it is art that comes to you, wherever you are, without walls or barriers.

 

We hope in those moments people feel joy. Public performance should exhilarate. The colour, the scale, the rhythm and the choreography are all crafted to invite people in, to sweep them up in something larger than themselves.

 

But we also hope they feel provoked. The Worker Bee asks us to notice the invisible labour that holds our cities together. The Queen Bee asks us to reconsider leadership and women’s agency in culture. Together they embody the paradox of labour and sovereignty, tradition and evolution.

 

What makes this moment so powerful is that we have been welcomed into the traditional heart of La Mercè. To stand alongside the gegants, the bestiari, the Balls de Bastons, the cercaviles and the correfoc is to be invited into something that carries deep civic meaning for Catalonians. These traditions are not just entertainment; they are part of identity and belonging, carried with pride and care across generations.

To be included within them is both an honour and a responsibility. We approach that invitation with deep respect, knowing how strongly these practices are protected and how vital they are to Catalan life. And we recognise the solidarity here: in both Catalonia and Greater Manchester, culture is a way of asserting identity, resisting erasure, and building cohesion. The very act of placing our traditions side by side, the bees alongside the gegants, is not a threat to culture, but a celebration of its strength and a way of keeping it alive.

 

We hope audiences leave not only exhilarated by the spectacle but also reflecting on their own traditions. What happens if you hold them too tightly? What is lost if you let them evolve beyond recognition? Where is the essence, and where can change happen without erasure? 

These are not abstract questions. In both the UK and Catalonia there are tensions between local identity and central narratives, between what is celebrated and what is marginalised. Culture can entrench those lines, or it can soften them through welcome, exchange and shared ritual.

Above all, we hope people recognise themselves in us. Manchester’s stories of industry, migration, folk practice and community pride are not so different from Barcelona’s. This work is not about showcasing difference but about discovering resonance. It shows that celebration itself can be a form of protest, and that protest can also be joyous.

Feature Image Photo Credit: Vipul Sangoi

Interview Text Supplied By Chloe Nelkin Consulting and Published With Their Permission

Manchester is the official Guest City for La Mercè 2025, Barcelona’s biggest annual festival, in a landmark cultural collaboration that brings two powerhouse cities together in a spectacular celebration of outdoor performance, diversity, and artistic innovation. Curated and produced by Manchester-based international outdoor arts organisation XTRAX, in collaboration with Without Walls, Manchester at La Mercè 2025 will showcase some of the city’s trailblazing outdoor artists across six days of parades, installations, music, dance, and performance in public spaces throughout Barcelona.

The festival takes place between Tuesday 23rd–Sunday 28th September 2025.

Location Various across Barcelona

Website: https://withoutwalls.uk.com/la-merce-2025-manchester-programme-announced/

https://xtrax.org.uk/project/la-merce-2025/

Social Media #MCRxLaMerce2025 #ManchesterWithout Walls