Be(a)ware Butoh Festival Be(a)ware Butoh Festival

Be(a)ware Butoh Festival is an annual butoh dance festival organized in Helsinki.

The starting idea for the festival was to bring together long-standing butoh artists from different parts of the world, to offer the public the highest possible quality butoh performances and workshops.

The festival is four days long and takes place from the 15th to the 18th. October 2026. There are one to two workshops per day, a total of 6. There are four performances in the evening, a total of 13 different performances during the festival. The performance venue is the Kellariteatteri. Workshop venues are Zodiak and Eskus. The festival performers are: Minja Mertanen and Rocio Batafurai, Onja, Josephine Grundy, Quentin Chaveriat, Andrea Casallas, Reto Weber, Cello Wyss, Coco Villarreal, Jutta Mayer, Rosa Anima, Ioku Ero Nikaido, Elizabeth Damour, Charis Taplin, Thixotrot and Yokko. In addition, the festival will feature a video festival MINIMUM focused on butoh works. Rocio Batafurai, Josephine Grundy, Quentin Chaveriat, Andrea Casallas, Elizabeth Damour and Yokko will teach at the festival this time.

The artistic director of the Be(a)ware Butoh Festival is Minja Mertanen, who has worked in the butoh field for over 20 years. In addition, producer Hanna Ikonen works in the festival’s working group, Emilia Liimatainen is in charge of visual communication, Jaakko Kuikka is in charge of the website, and Giorgio Convertito is in charge of video production and Höyhentämö is in charge of ticket sales.

The festival has been supported by the city of Helsinki. Other partners are Höyhentämö and Kellariteatteri.