Written by Bloom Director and Upswing's Artistic Director – Vicki Dela Amedume. Bloom was a large-scale outdoor project for Bradford City of Culture 2025.
My career really began in outdoor arts – I started making work on the street.
As my career developed, I moved into theatres and more traditional arts spaces. One thing that was glaring in that transition was how the audiences changed, and who was in the spaces we were working in. They no longer looked like the streets of Woolwich, Stoke-on-Trent or Shipley.
That's why we continue to make outdoor work. We take art outside, and immediately it becomes accessible to anyone who uses that street, that park, that square – spaces where everyone is already invited. Spaces where no one needs to ask for permission to enter.
With Bloom, we wanted to create something that lifted our gaze – literally and emotionally. We wanted the high street to become our stage and the night sky our canvas.
Thousands of people came – families, neighbours, the curious, the casual passers-by. Some came knowing what to expect; most didn't. But all were part of something that transformed their familiar market square into something surprising, dynamic, and extraordinary.
When the aerialists rose above the buildings and a choir of 200 voices filled the air, people celebrated because something wonderful was happening – something made for them and shared right on their doorstep.
For some, it was their first time seeing aerial performance or opera or large-scale outdoor theatre. For others, it was the first time they'd ever seen those art forms in a space that felt like theirs. And that matters deeply. When amazing things happen where you live, it tells you: You are important. You deserve this. You matter.
I've been reading the social media comments as we rehearsed on site. At first, there were complaints: "Why are the buses diverted?" "What on earth is going on?" Then came curiosity: "What are they doing?" And as our rehearsals progressed, curiosity turned to surprise, and then to joy. Tickets sold out on the second day of street rehearsals. People stopped to watch, talk to us, film, and tell their friends and family.
Making Bloom wasn't easy. It took months of planning, coordination, persuasion, training, creative trust, and emotional courage. Our aerial trainees – many of whom had never performed before – trained for hours, learning to move in the air, to trust each other, to push beyond fear. The community choirs rehearsed tirelessly, bringing together hundreds of voices.
The production team jumped through countless hoops to ensure our creative vision was met. That process – the thinking, the sweat, the laughter, the stress – is where transformation happens. It wasn't just in the performance; it was in the people who made it in the months before, and in the people who arrived to complete the circle by watching.
People have asked us: Why go big? Why not make something smaller, easier, cheaper? Because sometimes, the scale is the point. When you make something monumental in a public space, it says: This community matters. It says: These streets are worthy of beauty. Bloom was about growth – about finding beauty in unexpected places, like flowers pushing through cracks in the pavement. It was about what happens when art and community entwine. We make large-scale outdoor work because we believe in that growth – in opening the sky, in widening the frame – so people know that the spaces they use daily can be full of magic. And that's why we take shows like Bloom to the streets.
Image credits:
- Bloom rehearsals 29.09.25 (by Celine McKillion)
- Bloom at Bradford 2025 – Credit David Lindsay
