Celebrating the values of freedom and independence through artistic innovation.

Night of Festivals 2012, Old Market Square, Anthony Hopwood

Night of Festivals 2013-2014

Following the tremendous success of Night of Festivals 2012ArtReach is creating Night of Festivals Touring, incorporating key ingredients from the successful London 2012 Festival event but with a new artistic programme. With support now secured by public funding through Arts Council England, the event will be seen in the following locations through 2013 and 2014 – Nottingham, Boston (Lincolnshire), Slough and Leicester.

Night of Festivals Touring will present an exciting range of world arts including live music, storytelling, moving image and digital arts, amazing site specific carnival interventions, street arts and temporary public art.

 More details will be posted shortly!

See short moving image of Night of Festivals 2012 on our Youtube channel and more images of the event in the ArtReach website gallery

Despite challenging weather on 21 and 22 June,  Night of Festivals 2012 went fully ahead as planned with the temporary installation of the Queen Erzulie sculpture commission,  from Haitian artists Atis Rezistans,a much talked about feature. The storytelling yurt (pictured above) was a vibrant and successful component,  with full houses the order of the day for most of the sessions. Carnival Day concluded, following the procession,  with a fantastic finale in the Square – seepicture at top of page. When the sun finally shone on Saturday thousands flocked into the Square to enjoy Paraiso Samba, Mandinga Arts and Rara Lakay. Gilles Peterson drew a strong crowd for the Festival climax despite the return of drizzle!

Paraiso Samba Nottingham Night of Festivals 2012

Many extraordinary artists  contributed to Night of Festivals 2012, including Haitian sculptors Atis Rezistans and the amazing carnival companies Mandinga Arts, Paraiso Samba and Rara Lakay. It is appropriate that Night of Festivals 2012 presented artists and work from many different cultures in the year when London stages the Olympic and Paralympics Games and “welcomes the world to the UK”. The timing for Night of Festivals 2012 was planned to lead into The London 2012 Torch Relay celebrations in Nottingham at the end of June and then later in the year will link into the World Young Artists Event in Nottingham in September. Night of Festivals 2012 activities  also reached into key venues around the city such as Nottingham Contemporary and the New Art Exchange (both of which are exhibiting material specifically as part of the project).

Carnival procession  Nottingham – Night of Festivals 2012

One key highlight of the event was the WORLD PREMIERE of a new, short film, WITNESSES, by international film maker/composer MICHAEL NYMAN.

This film was premiered FREE in OLD MARKET SQUARE  on Thursday 21 June – introduced live by Michael Nyman himself.

Witnesses Trailer

• When & Where

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  When

  Night of Festivals Touring
  Nottingham and Boston
  autumn 2013
  Slough and Leicester 2014

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  Time

  To be confirmed
  

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