So it is that time of year again. The programmes for Stockton International Riverside festival have just been release. Now in it’s 29th year SIRF is always a highlight of Stockton’s Events calendar.
This year’s festival starts on the 4th August with a fantastic performance by Mark Anderson called Furious Folly. Mark Anderson leads a team of artists attempting to respond to the inconceivable madness of the First World War. Taking place as night falls, in a no-man’s land on the battle front between the two lines, you will find yourself immersed within an open-air theatre of sound, light, pyrotechnics and performance. This performance will take place at Preston Park,
From Friday 5th August the festival takes over Stockton Town Centre with around 30 different shows being performed in and around the High Street. Highlights of this years festival include world premier shows by Wet Picnic, Jennifer Essex Dance and local dance company Flex.
Another local show appears on Sunday 7th August in Storytellers. The show ‘Searching for our Jimmy; An episode of rogues and honest men tells the Story of Mike Mcgrother’s family and how they left their homeland of Carrickmacross in Ireland to find refuge in the North East of England.
Many of this year’s festival-goers will be familiar with the eccentric English humour and theatre of SIRF favourites, Avanti Display, as they return to perform in Stockton Town Centre throughout the weekend. The troupe will present a retrospective of their ‘Greatest Hits’ shows that have been created over the last 20 years and performed across the world which include the predictions and sleight of hand tricks of Mystic Monty’s amazing fortune telling machine, the bizarre and spectacular twists at Mr Lucky’s tea party, and the pedal-powered Fountain Machine which has come out of retirement especially for SIRF. While Avanti Display can not bring all of their greatest hits to Stockton they are bringing an exhibition of images of their shows from the past 29 years.
From one exhibition to another. This years festival also marks two milestones for I Love Stockton Me’s own Arty Adam. Adam will be attending the festival for his 25th year and has been taking digital images of the shows at the festival for 10 years. To celebrate this he will be exhibiting some of his images from the past 10 years in The Arc on Dovecot Street. This exhibition will be displayed over 2 floors of The Arc and don’t worry if you cannot wait until SIRF the exhibition will open on Monday 18th July and will continue throughout the festival until 13th August.
As well as the exhibition Adam is planning to create an installation using social media and the hash tag #sirfsup . Using this hash tag he will collect images that visitors to the festival the post on various social media platforms and create a photo montage of each day’s images. This will give visitors to the festival from far and wide the chance to be part of a unique piece of art.
To keep up to date with SIRF visit www.sirf.co.uk
To keep up to date with Adam’s exhibition visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1686327864965106/ or email adam.parkin@ilovestockton.me
