Contact

With its striking architecture resembling a castle straight out of a Hans Christian Andersen tale, you could easily mistake Contact Theatre for a children's fun palace. You'd be quite wrong.

According to its website, 'Contact's vision is a world where young people are empowered by creativity to become leaders in both the arts and their communities.' Such lofty ideals have resulted in a venue that produces some of the most unconventional, experimental and challenging work in the region.

Drama, spoken word, dance and everything in between occupy the spaces within but it's the inclusive way that Contact operates that impresses even more than some of the work. Contact has tapped into the mysterious world of the 'young person' and workshops and ongoing opportunities to get involved with ensure that steady streams of new ideas and new energy keep the place vibrant. Attracting teenage audiences from notoriously hard to reach minorities is miraculous, but it's partly because these are the people helping to create the work, giving them a sense of ownership of the organisation.

You can get a taste for how effectively different audiences are nurtured from the festivals that run throughout the year, including 'Afrovibes', 'Contacting the World' and the now well established 'Queer Contact', taking up the reigns of long gone 'Queer Up North' festival.