Lincoln Center’s BIG UMBRELLA FESTIVAL Returns With Expanded Programming

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will present the Big Umbrella Festival from April 10 through April 26, 2026, offering a full-campus series of performances, installations, and workshops designed with neurodiverse audiences in mind.

Launched in 2018, the festival will continue its focus on sensory-based, interactive, and intimate artistic experiences, with all events offered as Relaxed Performances. Programming will be free or choose-what-you-pay, and is designed to welcome audiences with autism and other sensory or communication differences.

To mark this year’s festival, a limited-edition commemorative poster by artist Rayed Mohamed will be published by Lincoln Center Editions and distributed to attendees while supplies last.

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

Outdoor installation Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0, created by Esrawe + Cadena, will transform Josie Robertson Plaza with a series of red, three-dimensional house frames that invite visitors to sit, sway, and interact freely throughout the run of the festival.

Glasgow-based company Barrowland Ballet will return with The Unexpected Gift, an interactive dance-theater work that transforms everyday objects into a multi-sensory environment. Performances will take place April 10–12 and April 17–19.

Antarctica! Crew Wanted, from Rosán’s Sensory Adventures, will offer an immersive participatory theater experience inspired by Ernest Shackleton’s 1915 expedition. Created by Phillida Eves and Amélie Bal, the piece blends movement, music, and storytelling with a focus on teamwork and friendship, running April 17–26.

AXIS Dance Company will present Patterns at Alice Tully Hall from April 17–19, featuring choreography by Nadia Adame, Sonya Delwaide, Christopher Unpezverde Nunez, Kayla Hamilton, and Natasha Adorlee Westbrook.

CMS Kids: Tuneful Teamwork will bring chamber music to young audiences with the Viano Quartet, featuring works by Haydn, Grant Still, Beethoven, Borodin, Mendelssohn, and Bridge. Performances will take place April 18–19.

Lincoln Center Teaching Artists will lead a Box of Wonders Workshop on April 18, inviting participants to create sensory-friendly environments through hands-on artmaking.

The festival will also feature ASL Slam in the David Rubenstein Atrium on April 18, highlighting sign language storytelling and performance, alongside a morning ASL Baby Slam program for younger audiences.

A virtual screening of Once More, Like Rain Man with a workshop by E.P.I.C. Players will take place April 23 in partnership with the ReelAbilities Film Festival.

ReelAbilities Comedy Night will bring a lineup of disabled comedians to the Kaplan Penthouse on April 24.

Additional programming will include visual art stations led by Lincoln Center’s education team and guided campus tours offered April 15–16.hat-you-pay. A full schedule is available through Lincoln Center.