The essays in this collection explore transcultural events to reveal deeper understandings of the dynamic nature, power and affect of performance as it is created and witnessed across national and cultural boundaries. Focusing on historical and contemporary public events in multiple contexts, contributors offer readings of transcultural exchanges between Europe, Asia and the Middle East, between colonisers and the colonised and back again. In the process the authors explore questions of aesthetics, cultural anxiety, cultural control and how to realise intentions in performance practice.