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With the 2010 general election only months away young people from across the country take over Battersea’s Old Town Hall with a festival of challenging, playful and thought provoking work offering fresh visions of the future. Through performance, beatboxing, film, discussions with local parliamentary candidates, slam poetry, sleepovers and a manifesto, the theatre artists of tomorrow ensure their voices are heard. When Junction 25, the Glasgow Tramway’s youth theatre, brought From Where I’m Standing to Edinburgh’s Forest Fringe, it was described by Lyn Gardner as ‘not just one of the best things I’ve seen in Edinburgh this year, but one of the best pieces I’ve seen anywhere’. In this tender and honest show, Junction 25 invites their parents to join them onstage in an exploration of the real dynamics of family life. Now they bring it to BAC, along with their new piece exploring the curious workings of the human heart, I Hope My Heart Goes First. BAC’s YPT (Young People’s Theatre) have been working alongside leading theatre artists including Little Bulb, Gerry Pilgrim, Lundahl and Sietl and Hannah Ringham of Shunt to create three original works on show as part of the festival, each responding to the stimulus: If I Ruled The World.... Beatbox Academy Showcase will share the results of young people’s work with UK champion beatboxers Shlomo, MC Zani and Jester. Elsewhere, parliamentary candidates will face up to tough questioning from local young people, emerging MCs and musicians will share their work and an open invitation goes out to all to contribute to the youth manifesto proclaimed across the BAC rooftops. From open mic nights to slam, flash mobs to hustings, this is activated theatre.