The Walk is a travelling festival of art and hope in support of refugees – an epic cultural journey across Europe transcending borders, politics and language. Join us to mark the start of The Walk with a launch event during MIF21, a moment of reflection and hope created with refugee communities in the city (details to be announced shortly) – and then join us again for its powerful conclusion this autumn in Manchester.
The Walk is centred on Little Amal, a 3.5-metre puppet of a nine-year-old refugee girl who is setting out from the Syria-Turkey border in July on an 8,000-kilometre odyssey to Manchester in search of her mother. Little Amal represents displaced children around the world, many separated from their families and all more vulnerable than ever during the pandemic. According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, around half of the 26 million refugees around the world are under 18, and 40% of all displaced people are children.
For three months, Little Amal will travel across Europe, welcomed with special events in villages, towns and cities across Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the UK. And in November, Little Amal will end her journey with a major event in Manchester – a city that has long been a proud home to diverse and dynamic communities of migrants and refugees.
Created by Good Chance (The Jungle) in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company, the makers of War Horse, The Walk is bringing together artists, cultural institutions, community groups and humanitarian organisations to create a public artwork of astonishing ambition. Read more about it at walkwithamal.org – and join us at MIF21 to mark the start of the journey.
Produced by Good Chance, Stephen Daldry, David Lan and Tracey Seaward in association with Handspring Puppet Company. Produced and presented in Manchester by Manchester International Festival.
