The FutureEverything Story: Introduction
Discover the history and current significance of FutureEverything.
This series of articles and reports tells the story of FutureEverything. We look from when it was founded in 1995 to its closure as a company in 2026. We try to make sense of how, and why, a festival and cultural organisation came to have such an outsized influence. Along the way we chart the development of digital culture in the UK and Europe.
FutureEverything was born in a time of creativity and permission when people were inventing their own realities on the Web. It brought people together to discover, share and experience new ideas about the future. FutureEverything provided a place to ask searching questions about our digital society, make and test possible futures, and take part in electronic arts pulsing through a city.
We came together to realise the emancipatory and creative possibilities of the Internet. We soon faced the dawning reality of centralisation, inequality, electronic waste, and loss of privacy at an unprecedented scale. We dared to hope and hold open spaces for other realities to take hold. Much of what we have done was introducing openness, art, design to surprising places, from science to cities.
The critical futurism of the festival became surrounded by an organisation that applies this insight in science, in cities, as well as in art. A big shift was from showcasing projects and people we admire, to convening, imagining and directing projects year-round that stretch far beyond the festival. Manchester was FutureEverything's home – the city whose renaissance it helped to shape. Its reach extended from there to Singapore, Moscow and beyond.
The FutureEverything Story is a collaboration between Drew Hemment, founder of FutureEverything, and doctoral researcher Bilyana Palankasova, through a research project at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Parts 1 and 2 were researched and written by Bilyana Palankasova in collaboration with Drew Hemment; Part 3 is written by Drew Hemment as founder.
We hope you enjoy this publication series.
