Details of what's actually going on at artsfest are always hard to come by - so can we collect as much knowledge as we can online?
Friday Evening
Light Night - street entertainment & lighting up buildings.
Saturday Evening
Classical music and fireworks
'Kerrangfest'
Headliners - The Levellers
Over the weekend, and after - Stan's Cafe's Of all the people in the world
Bad: It really is a shame that they don't decide to, y'know, tell people what's happening more than about five minutes in advance. Also: The Levellers.
Good: I generally really do enjoy Artsfest. And the big Saturday night bit last year with 1812 Overture/Land Of Hope And Glory/William Tell Overture and the lovely fireworks was brilliant. And I'm really looking forward to the Stan's Cafe rice larks.
I kind of understand why they don't feel able to release info, but it's irritating. I like to try to plan not to miss the good stuff.
Have found this snippet too:
Munayem Mayenin will be taking part at ARTSFEST 2008, Birminigham's Big Art Festival - 12-14th September.
Poetry Performances for everyone
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (Chamberlain Square and Surrounding Area), Gallery 18, September 12, Friday, 18:30-19:00 19:45-20:15
Poetry for Children and Families
BBC Public Space (The Arcadian and Surrounding Area), September 13, Saturday, 17:15- 17:45
m8e
Member
Former Brum poet laureate Simon Pitt informs me that there will be some form of "poetry pub-crawl" taking place on the Friday night which might be worth looking out for.
BTW, what is it you don't like about the Levellers, Russ?
OK, so they might be a bit of a crusty cliche - what with their didgeridoo and all - but they still have a few good festival-rousing songs in their repertoire.
The worst thing about The Levellers is that their presence seems to nearly always be accompanied by fans of The Levellers.
Gravy Hole
Member
The Levellers are twats, I saw them last year. They were so full of their own self-importance and keen to tell folk how to conduct themselves, they make Bono look like a shy retiring type. Music's not all that either.
Chris Unitt is the don dadda as ever, and posts some info over at CIB.
I'm going to try and hire a Dhol for Dholfest. I'd better get a move on tho, because apparently they send you a CD and DVD to learn the rhythm. I've never played one before so will need a bit of practise!
Town Hall Press Release:
Town Hall on Friday 12 September (8pm) the freshest musical talent from around the West Midlands converges on the iconic landmark for a night of beats, bass, brass and dancing, with a DJ set from Manga (Shaanti, Funkshaan), hip-hop and nu-jazz from Associate Artist Soweto Kinch plus performances courtesy of funky homegrown band The Sub Ensemble and sleek new group Maylight featuring Mary Wakelam, Lizzy Parks and Chris Read.
...an afternoon of swing jazz, spiritual gospel, inspirational soul and uplifting choral music on Saturday 13 September, Meet the Associates is a unique opportunity to experience free performances from the BBC Big Band, Black Voices and Ex-Cathedra from 1pm - 5pm.
Highly regarded for their accessible and friendly approach to classical programmes, Stratford-based Town Hall Associate Artist Orchestra of the Swan perform a wonderful hour of music between 2pm and 3pm on Sunday 14 September as part of Open Hall!
A children's heritage trail, organ demonstrations and a prize draw will also be on offer from 1pm - 5pm on Sunday 14 September, as well as a chance to explore a brand new exhibition of paintings, photos, prints and posters which celebrates the concert hall's place at the heart of Birmingham life from its opening in 1834 to the successful re-opening in October 2007.
m8e
Member
Best event I've ever seen at an Artsfest so far was when the Godskitchen DJs played a euphoric trance set in Centenary Square.
Admittedly my appreciation of the event was no doubt enhanced by the magic mushrooms I'd taken, but even so, it was still undeniably wonderful to see such a diverse range of people all dancing together as one. In fact it seemed like there were people from just about every race, class, subculture, and age group in the whole of Birmingham dancing there.
One city under a four-to-the-floor groove.
In particular I remember watching groups of posh-looking people in evening dress being drawn into the event as they were comng out of a classical concert at Symphony Hall, while a certain middle-aged woman I know was dancing so hard that she did her back in and had to be removed from the square in a wheelchair.
So yes, some more of that sort of stuff please
- and don't suddenly cut the power off at midnight next time.
Got the programme today, A5, fairly clear - 100% improvement on last year.
spripingule
Member
One of the best kept secrets of Artsfest is that Monday Session, THe best soul and funk band in Brum, ar playing the Victoria Square stage at 5.30 on Saturday. All original stuff, written by the band and performed by three of the best voices to sing the genre backed by superb musicians. Unsigned as ye, catch them before they go stellar so that you can say yo were there. See you Saturday!
m8e
Member
Have Monday Session played the Yardbird yet? Only that's the major Brum venue for soul/funk bands these days.
As for the music at ArtsFest in general this year, I see that just about all genres are represented to some extent, with the one notable exception (to me at least) of drum & bass.
This is a major omission, as d & b is going through something of a creative resurgence these days, with some amazingly intense cyber-voodoo, tech-metal style d & b coming out of Russia and Eastern Europe right now.
Why am I never consulted on these matters?
m8e
Member
continued...
Anyway, never mind ArtsFest - there will be a major drum & bass night at the Rainbow Warehouse on Friday 12th, featuring The Sect, Dom and Roland, Blame, PCM, Reaction, and Freenote b2b with Tek Prime.
Would still have been nice to have seen a taster of this kind of thing being given free to the general populace in Centenary Square though.
m8e
Member
Personal ArtsFest highlights -
Stan's Cafe, Of All the People in All the World - a wonderfully pure and simple concept, realized to devastating effect. Genuinely mind-expanding, it should be made compulsory viewing for all the world's politicians.
Willard Wigan - meticulously crafted sculpture on the scale of a speck of dust. The guy looking through the microscope at the first sculpture before me pretty much summed it up with his astonished exclamation of - "No way, man! Just no fucking way!"
Willard himself was on hand to talk about his work, which apparently all began with him crafting items of "ant furniture" from wood splinters.
That famous line by William Blake about seeing "a world in a grain of sand" kept coming to mind.
Kimmy Sue Ann, chav queen of poets - when she first came on I just thought she was going to be a Catherine Tate rip-off, but she really has a way with words, exhibiting a razor-sharp intellect and love of language behind her garishly grotesque make-up.
Various bands at the Flapper on Sunday - guitar-based rock music is not dead, it just smells a bit funny.
Though I've long regarded rock music as just being sooo last century darling, when experienced up close and personal in a dark and crowded basement after a few pints of lager, it can still hit the spot.
Middle-aged punks Dead Jeff in particular had an engaging retro-primitivist charm about them.
The one thing I really missed this year, however, was the Caribbean goat curry and jerk chicken wagon.
What's happened to it?
You must log in to post.
