13th August 2014
Night of Festivals this weekend
Seventy local community participants are gearing up to join the exciting line up of music, theatre, carnival interventions, storytelling, moving image and visual artists that makes up the diverse and colourful Night of Festivals which, following a successful year touring across the UK, is set to land in Leicester this weekend (16th & 17th Aug) to open the City Festival.
The ArtReach produced event comprises two days of intensive FREE arts activities on Humberstone Gate, Leicester, with extraordinary carnival characters and musicians parading the High St, Granby Street and Humberstone Gate areas throughout both days.
The talented teams from the internationally renowned Mandinga Arts and Paraiso Samba (Europe’s only original Rio samba company) will be joined by local performers who are busy rehearsing routines with carnival costumes inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations and by George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Leicester audiences will meet the huge “Giant Skeleton”, the dancing troupe of “sexy cows”, the delightful cats, mice and LED lit frogs, the golden birds and the scarily voracious pack of dog puppets. Carnival troupes are accompanied by an itinerant band of musicians cycling in a decorated rikshaw!
The weekend is brimming with free activities for all the family. As well as carnival there is a full programme of magical live storytelling from around the globe, with stories in the Festival Yurt every hour from 11am to 5pm each day. The Festival Performance Dome hosts children’s theatre, world music, a capella vocals and exciting opportunities to participate in South African Gumboot Dance workshops and an amazing Drum Circle led by talented South Asian percussionist Sandeep Raval.
Don’t miss also the Haitian voodoo statue and the quirky little moving image gallery, the Nanoplex, hosted in a standard touring caravan!
ArtReach Director, and Night of Festivals Producer, David Hill, said “the team can’t wait to wow Leicester. The Festival offers something for all ages, it’s fun, colourful, noisy….and also a little bit challenging. We aim to celebrate the values of freedom through exciting artistic innovation. Come and find out more.”
The Night of Festivals fun kicks off from 11:00am – 10pm on Saturday 16th and 11:00am – 5:00pm on Sunday 17th August.
To find out more about Night of Festivals, visit the website www.nightoffestivals.co.uk where you can view or download the full weekend programme, or visit Twitter: _ArtReach or Facebook: /ArtReachEvents