Festival fever

It’s a fine line between having the courage to take groundbreaking art events into open streets and being daunted by the prospect of dealing with a huge list of challenges. These include permissions, health and safety requirements and visa rules, as well as finding the funds, convincing the sceptical traditionalists and persuading communities that cutting-edge content is worth a punt. However, ArtReach is confident we will successfully push the boundaries with a pioneering three-day free festival in Nottingham.

ArtReach developed the ‘Night of Festivals’ concept in 2010 in response to the Bicentenary of Latin American independence, presenting innovative arts practice to celebrate the values of freedom and democracy. The project featured processional performance, community participation, thought-provoking installations, experimental moving image, street arts and contemporary music. It enabled relationships to be built with partner arts organisations, the local authority, community groups and a range of international Embassies. Feedback showed it worked, so ArtReach is taking significantly bigger risks with a second festival this June, taking a world approach in tune with the London 2012 Games, and planning even more pioneering events aimed at celebrating independence and how artistic innovation can be a catalyst for freedom. The Festival content will be challenging and provocative, stimulating and fun, but above all accessible to the whole community.

Nottingham is home to many cultures and like many city centres there have been tensions in the past, making some members of the public wary of venturing into the city at night. ‘Night of Festivals’ reclaims the streets, proving the city centre can be vibrant, fun, a family-friendly area and a hub for extraordinary creative activity. It has London 2012 Festival status on 22 June – Carnival Day with spectacular processions by Mandingo Arts and Paraiso. We will also expose audiences to a variety of artistic forms and cultures, including the world premiere of Michael Nyman’s new work. A ground-breaking aspect will be the first ever Haitian Rara procession in the UK. Rara is acoustic, processional music from Haiti, associated with voodoo, carnival and social protest movements. With an anarchic element to it, Rara is one of the most breathtaking and contested forms of music in the Americas. A residency ahead of the Festival will enable local communities in disadvantaged parts of Nottingham to participate, learn Rara rhythms, make instruments from recyclable materials, learn about Haitian culture (the island that hosted the only successful slave revolution in the world) and see where a Rara procession might take them.

So what about those risks, challenges and potential problems? Nottingham City Council is hugely supportive, but that isn’t to say people don’t raise issues and concerns. A free event is unpredictable. Processions, especially with Rara, need to tread a fine line between being managed and allowing participation. We don’t know how many will come onto the streets and therefore have to prepare for all eventualities including over-crowding, responding to injury or illness, lost children and even more extreme, terrorist attacks. The issues raised include pedestrian safety in narrow streets or at points of convergence; traffic flow; and how to deal with tram and tram lines when parading a carnival procession with giant puppets, a float and an 18-ft giant skeleton. The ArtReach team has been working for 18 months on the funding issues around running a free event and despite Arts Council England, Legacy Trust, European Regional Development Fund and City Council support, ultimately has to take financial risks, as well as sorting the logistics of bringing together an extraordinary, challenging programme. Gaining visas for the artists from Haiti was a nightmare. Sculptors Eugene and Celeur from Atis Rezistans had to take 100-mile bus trips into Dominican Republic for visa interviews, prior to getting papers sent by courier to Jamaica for formal signature. The Rara band were asked questions around family birth dates, when birthdays are not celebrated or even remembered in Haiti… a normal state of affairs in that country but a nightmare for completing UK systems.

One important element of the ArtReach approach has been to work in strong partnership with other city arts organisations – City Arts, Nottingham Contemporary and the New Art Exchange, helping ensure there is committed collaboration to make ambitious plans a reality. Without this support the idea of moving a one ton piece of sweet chestnut around the city for artists to carve and erect as a totemic and iconic statement in front of Nottingham Council House, would simply not have been possible. The risks remain but the key is in the planning and that gives us the confidence to move forward to present three amazing days of events for the people of the East Midlands.