Derby Festé – Fitting Climax to Celebration Summer
The stage is once again set for Derby’s annual extravaganza of international street theatre, spectacular live performances and sheer unadulterated fun – a fitting climax to the summer of celebration.
In just six short years, Derby Festé has become a popular feature of the Midlands’ world-class festivals calendar – attracting some of the very best outdoors acts on to the city’s streets.
This year is no exception and organisers are confident that the public reception for Festé (Thursday September 20 to Saturday September 22) will echo the huge crowds who enjoyed previous Festé performances and supported the busy calendar of celebrations events in the city this summer such as the arrival of the Olympic Torch Relay in June.
Derby Festé 2012 kicks off with the first headline act – spectacular French ‘shadow theatre’ troupe, Luc Amoros.
They will perform on Cathedral Green in the city centre on Thursday and Friday evenings (Sept 20 and 21) between 8.30pm and 9.40pm – arriving in the city fresh from acclaimed performances in France.
Luc Amoros is one of the world’s greatest exponents of the art, and has taken an ancient theatre of projected images and turned it into a state-of-the-art 21st century performance, captivating large audiences wherever they go.
Carefully choreographed, and set to music against a striking and illuminated backdrop, the Luc Amoros Page Blanche performance ends with a striking piece of art – and will bring with it exactly the right level of eye-catching and explosive entertainment to kick-start an extended weekend of family fun. Tickets for Luc Amoros are on sale now at www.derbyfeste.com and start at just £4.00 per person or £12 for a family of four.
The exciting finale to the Festé programme will then see the action move to Darley Park on Saturday (Sept 22) when Games Time – the spectacular outdoor stage show inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, comes home to Derby to mark the end of the Cultural Olympiad in the East Midlands.
Games Time, starting at 8.30pm, is set on a stage designed as a giant games board. Four different coloured teams battle it out for supremacy to a backdrop of two large video screens, flanked all around by fire and fireworks.
The show brings together not only some of the country’s highest-profile names in their genre, but over 100 local people who will perform alongside the professionals.
Conceived in Derby, Games Time was the brainchild of Stephen Munn of Déda Producing, who has worked alongside QUAD, the city’s multi-media and arts venue, to produce the show.
It beat off stiff competition from across the UK to be crowned one of four community celebration events funded by Legacy Trust UK, a charity set up to leave an arts and culture legacy from the 2012 London Games.
Part of the London Festival 2012 programme, the show has already played to 20,000 in Skegness, Loughborough and Northampton. Admission is free and organisers are expecting a large crowd.
Flanked by these two headline performances – visitors to Derby over the extended weekend can enjoy a host of free live performances and street entertainment.
The first is the premiere of QUAD Derby Soap Opera – one of the world’s largest mass participation film projects.
ROSAS: The Attic will be shown for the first time at the Assembly Rooms on Thursday September 20 at 7pm. Derby Soap Opera has involved more than 15,000 local people, directed by international artist and Director of Photography Marinella Senatore.
Friday September 22 will see the Market Place transformed into the Festé Jive Party with live music from King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys setting the pace for an evening of fun and bouncing Forties’ dance between 9.15pm and 11pm.
And throughout Saturday (Sept 22) there is something for everyone in the streets of the Cathedral Quarter and St Peter’s Quarter with a host of innovative creative workshops, imaginative street theatre and music from giant seagulls and kangaroos to wacky aliens and a dancing nun!
Peter Ireson, Director of Derby LIVE said: “This summer has been an unrivalled time of celebration in the city and throughout the UK and Derby Festé is an exciting and fitting climax to the feel-good factor that has boosted everyone’s spirits in the past few months.
“Previous editions of Festé, the Darley Park Concert and, more recently, the Olympic Torch Relay have shown that the people of Derby love to take to their streets and open spaces to celebrate and watch great live performances.”
Keith Jeffrey, Director of Derby QUAD added: “This year we have an even greater mix of local and international artists to present one of Derby’s most dramatic festivals to date.
“Yet again a truly unique event is being brought to the city as part of Derby Festé 2012. Luc Amoros have travelled the world with Page Blanche which is a feast of colour, music and spectacle. I am really excited at the thought of this amazing show coming to Derby and proud that the city is leading the way in its presentation of the very best of international outdoor work.”
And Stephen Munn from Déda concluded: “I am particularly delighted that Games Time, conceived in Derby and heralded as a Cultural Olympiad keynote event nationally, is coming home to the city where it was conceived and is the climax event for Festé.
“This is a spectacular show drawing together dancing, fireworks, music; but it also has a strong community element. It really taps into the huge feel-good factor that the Games have created. Coming home to Derby will be a very special night.”
Further details of all the events at Derby Festé and how to buy tickets for the Luc Amoros’ Page Blanche show are available at www.derbyfeste.com.
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For further information, please contact:
Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945665; sarah@jjpublicrelations.co.uk
Editors Notes:
Derby Festé was founded in 2007 to mark the opening of Westfield Derby. This was followed in September 2008 by a second Festé event to mark the launch of the Cultural Olympiad in the East Midlands and the opening of QUAD. In 2009, Derby Festé became a stand-alone festival for the East Midlands. Since the first event, Derby Festé has had the ambition of developing into an annual event with funding from various public and private sector organisations. Derby Festé is presented by Déda, QUAD and Derby LIVE, produced by Walk the Plank and supported by a host of organisations including Arts Council England, Derby City Council and Westfield Derby.