A TWO-DAY festival planned for Luton has received a major boost with £15,000 of funding from the Arts Council.
Celebrate Luton Street Fest, which takes place in the town centre in August, is two days packed with drummers, parades, comedy, music, street circus, interactive street games, dance, a projection, rap, workshop and more.
Luton Business Improvement District, which is working to enhance the town centre, has already earmarked funding for the festival. The Arts Council money has enabled the organisers to bring more artists to perform over the two days.
BID director Marie Kirbyshaw, chief executive of Luton Culture, said: “We were determined to bring a festival to Luton town centre this summer so the BID put aside funding to make this happen and this has been further boosted by a grant from Arts Council England. Celebrate Luton Street Festivalpromises to be an unmissable spectacle for the whole family and we are expecting the town centre to be brimming with people enjoying high- quality and memorable arts performances”.
Luton BID has commissioned Revoluton Arts to create Celebrate Luton Street Fest, which takes place on August 30-31.
Thanks to the additional funding the opening event on the Friday will now be a comic, musical promenade performance by French outdoor arts company Vernisseurs, who describe themselves as “a company which combines visual arts and theatre, using the street as a playground”’.
The funding has also meant the addition of an ‘Applause Programme’, made up of four artists:
- Eric McClennan Open Air Drawing Room. This begins with the arrival and unpacking of folding stools, easels, flasks, other knick-knacks and sandwiches. But this is no ordinary show – for the audience will literally be drawn into the group
- A parody of the Jaws movies by Bootworks Theatre, called We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat.
- Enter Edem: Comedy Cavemen. This posse of Palaeolithic cavemen characters cause mischief while spreading an environmental message. They will have audiences laughing and running to the recycling bin as they tell the tale of their time spent frozen in ice to be awoken into a world of plastic problems to be solved.
- Joe Garbett Dance. An interactive outdoor table tennis performance Doubles, combining innovative dance project combining ping-pong and dance.
The entertainment takes place 5.30pm-8.30pm on August 30 and 11am-9pm on August 31. The closing event on Saturday will be a dynamic spark and pyro display from Worldbeaters, a world-class illuminated music and street theatre/ drumming act.
Other highlights are a children’s street theatre and interactive street games.
Revolution Arts project director Jenny Williams said: “We are delighted to have been commissioned by Luton BID and supported by Arts Council England to produce Celebrate Luton Street Fest. We are looking forward to bringing two days of the best of UK and international outdoor arts performance to the heart of Luton.”
Find out more about Luton BID and its events and initiatives throughout the town centre. Visit the BID website www.lutonbid.org, call 01582 510657 or email info@lutonbid.org.
