A joyful print fair and risograph studio festival. Three days of workshops, talks, open presses, limited-edition posters and fluorescent weather — all printed on paper, obviously.
Every festival piece — posters, tickets, zines, badges — is separated into our four riso inks: fluorescent coral, cobalt, sunflower and mint, plus dense black overprint. Watch the plates drift apart and settle back into registration.
← live ink plate, printing itself right now
Runs a two-drum riso on a farm trailer. Famous for enormous coral skies and a strict rule: every plate gets one happy accident.
Prints the actual weather every morning: pressure maps, gust charts and one barometer that has never once been wrong.
Believes every duotone hides a third colour. Prints in the dark, by feel, and swears the drum hums in D minor.
Professional misregistrator. His posters deliberately walk apart under magnifying glasses. Keeps a wall of 'wrong' prints, called the good wall.
Prints one poster a month, on purpose. Her editions sell out in hours and her drying rack is, in her words, load-bearing infrastructure.
A two-person studio in a converted launderette. If a paper has a funny fold, they print on it. Their stockist map has no straight lines.
Nearest stop: Leeds Foundry Lane. Step-free route marked in cobalt. Dogs welcome on leads — the drum is loud.
I left with ink in my hair, my bag and, I'm fairly sure, my bloodstream. The parade in the rain was the single best moment of my year.
— Priya, graphic designer, Leeds
Mara's workshop gave me permission to love the mistakes. My first misprinted poster is now my studio logo.
— Tomas, first-time printer
They sell me a poster, a badge, a zine, and then a second poster 'for the wall at home'. The ink bar's coffee is also criminally good.
— Amara, returning third year
A riso (or risograph) is a hybrid print machine that stamps each colour one at a time onto recycled-ish paper, like a very fast, very inky photocopy of your art. Each colour is its own 'plate' — which is why you can see layers, overprints and the occasional glorious misregistration. It's loud, a little smelly (in the best way) and slightly magic.
No. Every workshop is beginner-friendly unless it says otherwise, and each one is capped at 14 people so you'll actually touch the machine. Wear clothes you don't mind smudging — we provide aprons, but the ink has opinions.
Festival tickets sell online and at the door (door price is a little higher, like everywhere). Posters from the shop here sell online before the fair and at every studio table on the day — editions are numbered and truly limited. When it says sold out, the drum has stopped.
Yes. The Old Foundry has step-free access on the cobalt-marked route from Foundry Lane, accessible toilets in the hall, a quiet room by the ink bar, and British Sign Language interpretation at all main-hall talks. Tell us at booking time if there's anything we should prepare.
Yes! Bring 300dpi PDFs (or originals, we'll plate them) and queue at the guest print desk in the hall. Small runs — 5 sheets, 4 colours — about 20 minutes each, £6 per sheet. Come early; the queue is a social event in itself.
The parade happens in any weather, and the weather is the whole point. There is cover on the hall side if it's truly dreadful, and the mint team issues free ponchos. We print what the sky does; we just get paid in compliments.
One email a month: workshop bookings opening, poster drop dates, and exactly how many drums we added this year (hint: it's not 5).