Bold, beautiful Carnival art that tells unheard stories.
Cabasa is a women-led Carnival arts organisation with a focus on traditional textile craft and powerful storytelling.
We create stunning hand-crafted textiles, Carnival costume, large-scale sculpture, body art, and murals that are deeply meaningful. Everything we do is rooted in storytelling, community, and collaboration.
For the past 20 years we’ve been working with communities in Greater Manchester and beyond to tell their often unheard stories, inspired by Carnival practice from all over the world. Our spectacular work has reached millions across the UK and beyond.
Give us a follow
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Book one of our costumes or productions
HIRE US
Book our butterflies, stilt walkers, puppets, installations, or full on Carnival experiences for your event
CLICK HERE TO BOOK
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EMPOWERING BODY PAINT
ENDOMORPHOSIS
Endomorphosis is part of Metamorphosis, our ongoing body painting research and development project in which we’ve been studying this global art form, from its ancient roots, to modern cultural form, to how body painting can be an empowering tool to boost well-being.
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Our latest project
UNHEARD STORIES
A cross-generational collection of anonymous stories collected shared by a range of women about their lived experiences of accessing reproductive health care. The stories inspired the large-scale 'Still She Rise' mural as part of Common Walls Festival 2025 in Rochdale Town Centre.
Read more here
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EMPOWERING BODY PAINT
METAMORPHOSIS
FIND OUT MORE
Discover our online resource for our ongoing research and development into body painting. From studying the art form across the globe from its ancient roots and modern cultural forms, to how the body painting can become a tool for wellbeing and empowerment.
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Fabric Processing
Batik Wax Removal
If you have batiked fabrics that needs the wax removing, we have a small facility that does just that through steaming. The steaming process removes the residual wax if the fabric is batiked and fixes dyes (we work with Procion) to fabric such as silk. We also work with fabrics that have been naturally dyed.
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