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Peterborough Arts Festival 2015

↑ No, it's not Peterborough... But here's how Magnetic Events transformed Buckingham Palace

Vivacity announces Peterborough Arts Festival 2015 – once again set to fill the city centre with spectacular and quirky sights and sounds over the weekend of 5-6 September!  

Last year over 35,000 people packed the city centre to enjoy a weekend of international circus and music and a smash-hit concert – and this year looks to be just as thrilling, with more than 20 great performances. Highlights include the international street circus No Fit State spilling out across the city and a fabulous music premiere performed by Peterborough Sings! and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Broadway Theatre. One of the centrepieces, Peterborough: Enchanted City by Magnetic Events, will transform the city centre in a kaleidoscope of lights, colour and images – all with accompanying sounds.

Vivacity’s Festival Manager Sheena Carman explains: ‘They’re kind of temporary artworks, projected onto the buildings, so people will be able to see the city centre in a completely different way. And, as in previous years, we’ll be working with different communities to create these temporary artworks. Everything that is projected is created by people in Peterborough, by the community.’

Magnetic Events will be projecting on the Friday and Saturday nights, between about 8pm and 10.30pm. There’ll be plenty of opportunity for other public interaction and involvement. See our pick of just a few of the events on these pages – and look out, too, for the Hunt and Darton Café, a pop-up art-eatery that blends performance with great food and drink, described by the Guardian as ‘a pop-up establishment of disarming eccentricity’.

In addition, local arts organisation Metal will be launching Play Peterborough Now Or Never! a new mobile App developed by artists Idit Nathan and Helen Stratford, which will take people on an interactive ‘live art’ journey around their city centre in a fresh, imaginative and mischievous way. Peterborough Artists Open Studios (PAOS) will also be celebrating their 15th year of Open Studios with a talk at the City Gallery.

The full festival programme, including dates, times and information will be available at www.vivacitypeterborough.com. More exciting acts and events will be announced throughout the summer, as will a crowd-funding campaign and opportunities for businesses to come forward to sponsor this highlight of the cultural calendar. Tickets for the concert at the Broadway Theatre with Peterborough Sings! and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are available to book in advance from Peterborough Sings! on 0333 6663366 or by visiting www.peterboroughmvchoir.org.uk

No Fit State Circus presents
OPEN HOUSE
On Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, the city centre will be a riot of colour and high-energy performances as No Fit State Circus reveal their carnival of fun, Open House. Flowing through the town from Cathedral Square there will be an explosion of deckchairs, flags and umbrellas as a swarm of musicians, acrobats and aerialists fly out of caravans to create a joyous menagerie of circus chaos! This year audiences will also be invited to try their hand at circus skills as well as watch, laugh and be amazed by this free weekend of skilled circus performance.

Acrojou Circus Theatre presents
THE WHEEL HOUSE
A ‘tender, post-apocalyptic love story’, The Wheel House is a promenade show which unfolds inside and around a circular set as it rolls, with the audience walking alongside. A gently comic dystopia set in a time where survival relies on sharp eyes, quick hands, and, above all, friendship. Join these traveler-gatherers on the road to nowhere: treading lightly, enduring quietly, and always, always moving onwards. Stunning design and theatrical acrobatics housed in an exquisite, hand-built, rolling theatre set.

CLASSICAL SPECTACULAR
On the evening of Sunday 6 September, following the annual tradition of a classical concert as part of the Arts Festival, Peterborough Sings! will present Classical Spectacular, at The Broadway Theatre. Classical Spectacular will feature the 60-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and over 150 local singers, with highlights including popular classics such as O Fortuna from Carmina Burana, the Pomp and Circumstance March and Handel’s Messiah. There will also be the regional premiere of a newly commissioned, Peterborough-inspired piece Hawks and Horses, by composer Errolyn Wallen. Errolyn is best known for her works Principia and Spirit in Motion, which featured in the London 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

Whalley Range All Stars present
PIG
‘A short show full of surprises inside a surprisingly long pig.’ PIG is an eyecatching installation and show, featuring a 30-foot long sleeping sow in a pen. You can see her snuffling, opening and closing her eyes, and hear her snoring. A farm-hand invites ten people at a time into the pen to take a peek at a 10-minute long, unexpected piece of theatre inside her belly… PIG has captured the imagination of audiences all over the world, attracting crowds wherever it goes, always curious to discover what’s going on inside. TV crews have flown from as far afield as Seoul and Miami to film the show. PIG is an outdoor theatre event suitable for all ages. Performances run approx. every 15-minutes, for two hours, twice a day, with a cast of three.

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