From Hull Fair to a working butcher’s shop, featuring Mary Anne Hobbs, Richie Culver, Conor Thomas and more.
“It’s entirely unique within the festival landscape” – that’s how BBC Radio 6 Music DJ and festival mentor Mary Anne Hobbs describes UNTHINKABLE adding that it is “a place where community connection can build and creative ambition can soar”.
In September, UNTHINKABLE returns with another thrillingly off-centre line-up, bringing film, contemporary art and experimental sound into the city’s everyday spaces – including the waltzers at Hull Fair, a former automotive warehouse, and even a working butcher’s shop.
What began in 2023 as a film festival, has evolved into something harder to categorise. Today, UNTHINKABLE moves fluidly between cinema, experimental sound and contemporary art, embedding cultural activity in places that sit outside the conventional gallery, cinema or theatre.
This year’s festival runs from 11th September to 11th October, with its core programme taking place 6-11 October, presenting screenings, performances, exhibitions and projects in some unusual locations across the city.
Unusual venues
UNTHINKABLE’s relationship with Hull’s cultural landscape is central to its identity: DJs have performed from the waltzers at Hull Fair as part of the festival, temporarily taking one of Hull’s most established annual rituals into a Boiler Room‑like platform for experimental sound. Rainy Miller, Richie Culver and I. Jordan have performed at the fair. For this year’s festival, UNTHINKABLE continues this strand with Conor Thomas (The Death of Rave), bringing the label’s distinctive approach to experimental music into the fairground environment (Saturday 10th October, 3:30-4:30pm).
Elsewhere, the festival continues to push into the city’s everyday spaces with projects that reimagine where culture can happen. The festival begins at Hull Artist Research Initiative (HARI) – a former industrial automotive warehouse at 25 Francis Street – which will host a diverse exhibition of 35 local artists responding to the brief Adrift with Nothing But What I Can Carry, opening Friday 11th September. The building will also house this year’s Sofa Cinema, showcasing short films from the 2025 festival in the building’s raw industrial setting (2–6pm, 19 September) and other film nights throughout the festival (including documentaries, animation, narrative shorts, a Cuban feature film, presented in partnership with London Latino Film Festival: Death of a Bureaucrat, and a trifecta of 25-minute films from Vienna-based film distributor Square Eyes.
From there, the programme moves into Industrial Coast – back for another night of noise and music featuring: Deterge, Walls of Teeside, Balf, and performance artist Finn Darrell. (Thursday 8th October, 10pm-late, Hull Artist Research Initiative).WhileTHAW 001, curated by Pierre Mateos, which places a single work by concept artist Richie Culver inside a working Hull butcher’s shop, brings artwork directly into the Princes Avenue community (7-11 October).
Mary Anne Hobbs said: “It’s such a joy to be part of the UNTHINKABLE family. The young collective on the ground in Hull build this festival with unfettered imagination. The free mentoring – Scaffolding Sessions – I’ve hosted at UNTHINKABLE are now in their third year and ever evolving. It’s so exciting to see opportunity flourish – the wildly talented young artist CAMBO began as a mentee, and went on to host their first major solo exhibition at UNTHINKABLE just one year later.
“In 2025, I invited the Godmother of Hull’s underground Cosey Fanni Tutti for a takeover of Humber Street Gallery. Mixmag cover star I. Jordan too – they played a hardcore set on the waltzers at Hull Fair, then spent a day mentoring with myself, Richie Culver and our team from Hull plus sister city Middlesborough.”
Richie Culver, who will also be a mentor at this year’s Scaffolding Sessions on Thursday 8th October (6-8pm), said: “For me, UNTHINKABLE festival continues everything I value about contemporary culture. Hull is a city that often sits outside the cultural spotlight, and that is precisely why the things we do there feel so appropriate: using waltzers as performance spaces, staging exhibitions in working butcher’s shops, and creating a contemporary film and arts festival in a place that is too often overlooked. Our connection with Industrial Coast, just up the road, strengthens that sense of a wider regional culture developing on its own terms.
“At a time when almost nothing is truly underground, yet everyone claims to be, I feel that we are doing something genuinely off the beaten track. I hope we can preserve the rawness and energy that the festival has now, even as it grows over the coming decades. It can be difficult to recognise that you are living through the great times while they are happening, so I want to make sure I enjoy this moment while we are in it.”
Together, Mary Anne Hobbs and Richie Culver highlight the spirit that drives UNTHINKABLE: a festival shaped by generosity, experimentation and a deep commitment to Hull’s creative community. Their involvement has helped cultivate an environment where emerging artists feel supported, ambitious and connected – a foundation that the festival’s team continues to build on as UNTHINKABLE grows in scale.
UNTHINKABLE’s Creative Director Keaton BMcD said: “Having mentors like Mary Anne Hobbs and Richie Culver involved in UNTHINKABLE is transformative. They don’t just support the festival – they help shape the culture around it. Their commitment to Hull’s emerging artists, their willingness to experiment, and the generosity they bring to mentoring has lifted the whole community. UNTHINKABLE was built on the idea that creativity grows when people share knowledge and take risks together, and their involvement strengthens that every year.”
UNTHINKABLE’S Producer Andy Pearson said: “UNTHINKABLE is built on collaboration – between artists, audiences and the city itself. As a Hull‑based theatre‑maker and filmmaker, it’s inspiring to work alongside people who are genuinely invested in the city’s creative future. The involvement of mentors like Mary Anne Hobbs and Richie Culver amplifies that energy – their support opens doors, raises ambitions and helps emerging artists see what’s possible. This year’s programme brings together work that challenges, surprises and invites people in.”
Other festival highlights
Screen Skills Workshop – 5-6 September. (Venue TBC). Using a script from Middle Child, this workshop will guide young people through the process of filming and editing. They will be taught by experienced industry professionals and the workshop will result in a completed film.
The Sound of Your Own Voice Exhibition Opening – Wednesday 30th September, SPACE, 1-2 Pier Street, Hull: A new exhibition around finding creative voice in collaboration with local artist Amy Precious and in conjunction with the residents of Westbourne House, a supported accommodation for homeless people.
Unseen Images + Launch Night – Tuesday 6th October, Humber Street Gallery: The official festival launch night, featuring the opening of John Smith: Unseen Images, a major retrospective.
Hull & Humber: Local Shorts – Wednesday 7th October, 7-8pm, 8pm-9pm, 9pm-10pm, Reel Cinema. A showcase of short films created by filmmakers from Hull and the wider Humber region.
Debut/Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued – Thursday 8th October, 8-9.30pm, Hull Truck Theatre. This film by Julian Castronovo is the festival’s unmissable collaboration with Hull Independent Cinema.
Middle Child and Screen Yorkshire Networking Day and Film Premiere – Saturday 10th October, 11am-6.30pm, Middle Child, 69 Humber Street, Hull. Featuring workshops and talks, and the premiere of a short film adapted from a Middle Child Theatre play.
Awards Screening – Saturday 10th October, 7-10pm, Reel Cinema. The festival’s closing celebration of standout films including animation, documentary and fiction.
UNTHINKABLE festival, sponsored by Wykeland, Film Hub North, Screen Yorkshire and Hull City Council, takes place across Hull from 11th September to 11th October 2026, with its core programme running 6–11 October. Programme details and tickets at UNTHINKABLE festival Eventbrite.