A 10,000-Mile Question: What Does Responsible Touring Look Like?

Founded in 2003 and led by Co-Artistic Directors Ajay Chhabra and Simmy Gupta, Nutkhut is an Aldershot-based performing arts company creating playful, cross-disciplinary work inspired by the British South-Asian experience. Touring widely to festivals, melas and outdoor events, Nutkhut blends accessibility, humour, and cultural heritage to bring people together in shared celebration. Ajay is currently taking part in the Beginners course of ITER 4 (International Touring and Environmental Responsibility Programme 2025–26), exploring new models for sustainable and responsible touring.

This case study reflects on Nutkhut’s approach to international collaboration, habit change, and what responsible touring can look like in practice.

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When Nutkhut Co-Artistic Director Ajay Chhabra boards a plane to Suva, Fiji later this year, he will travel more than 10,000 miles in one direction — roughly 30 hours of flying time. It is a journey that is as much about reflection as distance, a moment for the company to think deeply about how international collaboration can be conducted responsibly, how global crises are felt locally, and how habit change can shape the way art reaches communities.

Nutkhut has a long history of international work. For the last two decades, the company has been active in Scandinavia, notably supporting the founding of Norway’s largest diaspora festival, Oslo Mela, helping to build platforms for culturally diverse communities.

Embedding Sustainability in Creative Practice

Nutkhut’s work often weaves subtle yet powerful messages about sustainability through its creative practice. The company develops and produces its projects with a conscious commitment to reuse, repurpose, and reimagine – embedding sustainability as an integral part of its storytelling.

One example is The Night Before Diwali — a 1980s Indian front room created by Ajay and Simmy for the Museum of the Home. This evocative installation invites audiences into a nostalgic window of time: the TV softly buzzing, homework scattered in the corner, Mum the seamstress surrounded by mannequins draped in fabric, trays of Indian sweets and gifts, a family shrine, and a well-loved video recorder. It recreates the warmth and chaos of a space where three generations lived, argued, learned, danced, and celebrated together. Every element in the installation – from furniture to fabric – was donated, loaned, or upcycled.

This project, which began as a small Diwali display, grew into a social and historical reflection on community and memory – demonstrating how sustainability can be expressed through cultural storytelling rather than framed purely as an environmental statement.

Fashion, Festivals and the Global Stage

Back home in the UK, the company’s work spans from fashion to festivals. Earlier this year, Nutkhut highlighted sustainable fashion in the City of London during London Fashion Week, demonstrating that responsible practice can be embedded in both cultural events and everyday urban life. Nutkhut’s sustainable sari — the world’s first, made from recycled bottles — debuted at the Royal Platinum Jubilee Pageant, exemplifying how creativity, heritage (a 5,000-year-old garment) and sustainability can shine on a global stage.

Learning from the World

The Fiji trip is separate from that ongoing work — it is an independent research and development journey. At the same time, it comes during Nutkhut’s involvement in the International Touring and Environmental Responsibility (ITER) programme, delivered by Julie’s Bicycle in collaboration with in futurum, which supports artists and organisations in England, Denmark, and Norway to explore sustainable, inclusive, and equitable approaches to international touring.

Becky Hazlewood, Environmental Sustainability Project Manager at Julie’s Bicycle, reflects on the wider touring landscape:

“Artists and organisations are increasingly asking challenging questions about the environmental and social impacts of touring. Nutkhut’s approach demonstrates how international work can be both ambitious and responsible, opening up new ways of thinking about collaboration across borders.”

The purpose of the Fiji trip is to meet arts organisations and practitioners on the ground, to see the direct impacts of climate change, and to explore ways of working internationally that are responsible and meaningful. There is no easy way: the journey requires air travel, and at present there are no realistic alternatives for long-haul flights. But avoiding that reality would not address the challenge. As Ajay explains,

“This is about exposing the elephant in the room. We can’t claim to be part of the global conversation on sustainability if we acknowledge it’s simply not about perfection, it’s responsibility, honesty, and asking how we can change our habits.”

Responsibility, Honesty, and Habit Change

Nutkhut has always worked with an ethic of responsibility. For more than 25 years, the company has reused and repurposed costumes, props, and materials across projects, reducing waste and extending the life of resources. Performances are staged in outdoor and public spaces — from shopping centres to town squares — avoiding the environmental costs of buildings: no heating, plumbing, or roof maintenance is required. Simmy Gupta, Co-Artistic Director, reflects:

“Sustainability has always been part of our practice. The next step is looking at our own habits — how we travel, who we meet, and how those encounters might inspire real change.”

In the UK, the impacts of hurricanes, cyclones, and flooding are often first visible through diaspora networks, rather than mainstream media. Families and communities share videos and images online, showing immediate realities that can be missed by reporting. Recognising this gap — the distance between lived experience and public perception — is central to Nutkhut’s thinking and a reminder of climate privilege.

The Fiji journey is a combination of internal learning and bringing insights back into projects and performances. Nutkhut hopes to raise awareness subtly among the audiences and communities it serves, helping people engage with climate and social issues as lived, tangible realities. Habit change remains the guiding principle: small shifts in thinking and practice, repeated over time, can lead to meaningful transformation.

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This is the first of two blog posts. Part two will reflect on what Nutkhut learns, amplifying voices from the ground, exploring local practices, and showing how these experiences can shape future collaborations and touring approaches, with responsibility, care, and habit change at the centre.