festivals
CD: JuJu - In TranceThursday, 02 June 2011![]() Over the past five years, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara have made two albums and an EP together, but it’s only now that they’ve got round to doing what most bands can’t wait to do, which is give themselves a groovy band name. Even though I’m a poo-... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Hay: Books EtceteraThursday, 02 June 2011![]() Watching bookaholic punters tramping down windswept country lanes in hiking boots, anoraks and rucksacks instantly alerts you to the singular quality of the Hay Festival, though it's surprising that nobody has grasped the glaring opportunity to... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Aarhus: SPOT Festival 2011Tuesday, 31 May 2011![]() On the Jutland coast, Aarhus is Denmark’s second largest city after capital Copenhagen. Its attractive continental atmosphere is amplified by the presence of this week’s temporary population, which includes visitors from Britain, Estonia, France,... Read more... |
European Festivals 2011 Round-UpMonday, 23 May 2011![]() Be different - take a festival break in Europe instead of the UK, and catch a different landscape. While artists in both new music and classical are constantly circling the world in search of more picturesque settings, you can find your alternative... Read more... |
Fanfare Ciocârlia vs Boban Marcovic - Balkan Brass Battle, The Dome, BrightonSunday, 22 May 2011![]() Subtlety is overrated. I've always thought so. Critical consensus too often rates nuanced, emasculated emoting over music that smashes you over the head with an iron bar. From hardcore punk to gabber to speed metal to the sort of dubstep that... Read more... |
Kutlug Ataman, Brighton Festival/Thomas Dane Gallery, LondonSunday, 22 May 2011![]() One of the highlights of this year’s Brighton Festival, curated largely via web chats and long-distance phone conversations by Aung San Suu Kyi, is Kutlug Ataman’s silent film installation Mesopotamian Dramaturgies. The leading Turkish artist, a... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Western Sahara: The World's Most Remote Film FestivalSunday, 22 May 2011![]() During the 1960s, when decolonisation movements were sweeping the world, it was joked that, after achieving independence, a country had to do three things: design a flag, launch an airline and found a film festival. Western Sahara has a flag but... Read more... |
UK Festivals 2011 Round-UpSaturday, 21 May 2011![]() It's time to dust down your tent and ice-box and plan some summer breaks with theartsdesk's definitive clickable festival guide - listings and links for all the UK festivals this summer, from rock by the lochs to DJs in London parks, and catching... Read more... |
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Apocrifu/ Gardenia, Brighton FestivalFriday, 20 May 2011![]() Apocrypha is a word that has acquired a dubious meaning, for books of questioned value and authenticity, texts in various religions that may not necessarily be held divine. The Belgian-Moroccan dancemaker Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's dance work Apocrifu... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Brighton: At the Festival Where Anything GoesSunday, 15 May 2011![]() Persecuted Burmese freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi may be this year’s guest director, provoking a loose theme of "freedom of expression, liberty, and the power of the individual voice" that’s all the more powerful for her enforced absence. But a... Read more... |
Asian Dub Foundation - Music of Resistance, Brighton DomeTuesday, 10 May 2011![]() It's been a while since I've spent time with Asian Dub Foundation. In the mid-Nineties, when they first appeared, they were one of the most exciting acts around and I enthused about them in print at every opportunity. They were born of an east-... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Clonter: The Opera FarmSaturday, 07 May 2011![]() Deep in rural Cheshire farmland, music is in the air. It’s not the music of the spheres from the Jodrell Bank radio telescope nearby, nor even the sound of the birds and the bleating of the lambs nearby. It is the music of human voices at work on... Read more... |
