FESTIVAL FOREWORD ⋆˙⟡.⋆✧˖°.
In ecology, the term ‘edge effect’ describes what happens where two habitats meet. Their boundary becomes its own ecological space, often richer and more biodiverse than either side would be alone. As a term, it is probably better suited for the technical use of conservation ecologists and field biologists, but it also captures Baltic Circle’s approach to the 2026 festival year.
This year, Baltic Circle conjures the edge effect on multiple fronts: through organizations meeting at the very edges of their practices to program together, and through performances that push right up to the borders of the self.
Many works this year investigate their own thresholds and margins. They test the boundaries between the conscious and subconscious, the sacred and the mundane, between life and death, and the blur line between the individual and the collective. It is the belief of the festival, and of many of the artists joining us, that it is precisely at these thresholds that transformative art may emerge.
But ecology is complex. While the edge effect may produce richer ecological outcomes in some areas, it also describes what happens when a fragile habitat borders a toxic runoff. An edge between a natural reserve and an industrial pollutant is its own ecological space, but a less healthy one. It reminds us of what it feels like to be navigating a knife’s edge as a small festival: one side being our continued existence and the other, the extinction of independent art platforms like Baltic Circle.
It’s an edge carved out by the disturbance of historic and ongoing cuts to cultural funding, which have forced the festival into extraordinary maneuvers just to stay afloat.
Thankfully, healthy ecosystems operate through collaboration. Trees and fungi form vast underground networks that trade nutrients in ways that sustain the wider forest. And when one plant is damaged, its neighbours pick up on the chemical scent it releases in an effort to prime their own defenses. In 2026, Baltic Circle’s strategy echoes that same instinct.
Our continued existence is possible thanks to the generous work of our partners, many of whom are meeting us under dire, shared circumstances. To nourish the landscape one must share resources. And to expand the margins and explore those overlaps, one must make way for the effects that emerge at that edge.
Welcome to the festival!
♡: Helmi DeMaxi (Marketing & Communications Lead), Yilin Ma (Interim Artistic Director) & Tiff Zhang (Managing Director)