My End of Festival Round-up

Now I’ve had a chance to catch up on some sleep, I’ve had a chance to think about the whole of the Inside Out festival this year. It was an extraordinary ten days, which took us from urban settings in the middle of busy Bournemouth to some beautiful starry moonlit nights in Worth Matravers. It might have taken at least a year to put together, but it’s been well worth it.

Thousands of people have watched, taken part in performing, listened to artists talk about their work, watched or joined in the dancing in Bournemouth Square, been thrilled by the aerobatics of an open-air circus, been enthralled by an accordion-playing rock-charmer or stunned by moon-creatures throwing ‘dream-balloons’ on Poole Quay.

My thanks to the people who programmed the performances, to the DTPC partners who supported the festival in many different ways, the volunteers who gave freely of their time and crucially to the people who performed the work. I want to thank the project managers, the whole production team, the people who came to participate and, very importantly to the audiences who came to see it. I recognised quite a few who came to every single event.

I’m going to leave you with a few things which I will always remember about this year’s festival.  Feel free to add your own in the comments section below!

Dance-inspired Bournemouth

If you’ve already read some of this blog you will see quite how much I raved about Congregation. I sat in the KMA/SCAN control booth for a little while and asked loads of questions. One question I had been asked when stewarding was if the movements were being filmed. KMA never record the ‘performances’, so the interactions between people remain ephemeral like the meetings and movements themselves.

You might not have been aware that some local dance companies came to ‘perform’ in the lights to see what would happen (this wasn’t advertised although people passing through the Square did stop to watch). Remix, a young people’s integrated performance company came to dance on Tuesday night (albeit in the rain) and they were brilliant. I particularly adored seeing the way the lights traced the person in the wheelchair and not the chair itself, which seemed to profoundly reflect what Remix is all about.

And, at the dance-inspired launch weekend I got to meet a performer who I’ve been in awe of for years: David Toole, who is working with StopGAP.

The Rock Charmer

The very lovely John Lowe from Dorset County Council (Historic Environment Manager, who said I could quote him!) told me it was the type of thing that “just makes you glad to be alive”. The Rock Charmer really was an extraordinary piece. I particularly liked hearing the comments as I took in lanterns from people at the Duck Pond, and also hearing all about how Kimmo makes his music at the pre-show artist talk. I also liked how much the people of this small village and the Square and Compass Pub were so accommodating (as well as hearing all about the bats).

Le Reve D’Herbert

This was a massively beautiful piece, and I was thrilled that the CPD artists Aurore, Amy, Carol, Carla and Louise were so involved with the work. It was lovely and significant that Jean Baptiste, Artistic Director of Quidams hasn’t ever been asked to give an artist talk about his work – and what an illuminating talk it was.

Parklife

My usual job is as one half of the Theatre Development team for Activate, and we work with artists looking for CPD opportunities. Thrillingly for us, two of the artists who were on the week-long CPD circus course with Inside Out have been asked to continue to work with NoFit State and go onto Taunton to carry on the work they’ve been doing with the show. The third person couldn’t due to work commitments, but she did happen to mention that the experience had “changed her life”.

Here’s to the Next Inside Out!

Lorna