Southend Festival 2010 – highlights

There’s an incredible range of festivals, art shows and cultural events happening across the Southend area this summer.  Check out Longpier’s guide to the Leigh Art Trail, the Southend Fringe Festival, Metal’s Village Green, Virtual Time Capsule, Southend Sundown

And, the big annual Southend Festival kicks off again this month with a range of events to suit all tastes. Longpier.com invited organiser Marco Scarola to tell us about this year’s festival.

“For Noah it was 40 days and 40 nights of rain but for us lucky lot in Southend, although we can’t rule out any of the wet stuff, we can guarantee 30 days and 30 nights of some of the best art, performance and music in June that money can buy, or happily in most cases, is free, as part of the eighth annual Southend Festival, organised by South Essex College and kindly sponsored by Southend-on-Sea Town Centre Partnership, Renaissance Southend and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council.

Southend: a creative and cultural hub

Southend Festival is about giving local people the chance to celebrate a range of creative skills. And with over 70 events such as bands, plays, exhibitions and comedy throughout June, Southend Festival shows just how much creative skill we have in both Southend and the College.

Like many others, I’m a bit tired of hearing the word ‘talent’ banded about at every opportunity as if that is the single, magical ingredient. Really successful creative people rely on the skills they have developed over time, usually through training and hard work. In that spirit, Southend Festival gives young people, especially, the chance to demonstrate how far they’ve come with developing their creative skills alongside their natural talent. People are always blown away by the range of creative skill on offer at Southend Festival, covering everything from Animation to Fashion, Photography and Fine Art – the performances and exhibitions from young and old shows that there is much more to successful creativity than raw talent.

Many of the events and exhibitions that make up the Festival are free of charge but full of something for everyone, whether you enjoy film, shows, exhibitions, music or art, there is bound to be something to please. And for me that is what makes Southend Festival the continued success that it is, that it is created by a huge range of people, from both the College and the local area, for everybody to enjoy. So I hope that Southend Festival a few smiles, a few songs and a few conversations for people this June.

Kane for a Laugh

One of those flaming hot talents is Festival Patron and local comedian, Russell Kane, who will be putting in an appearance at the College’s Pod with a preview of his brand new Edinburgh Festival material, which is something of a coup, on Thursday 17th June.

On being a Patron for the first time, Russell said: “Southend is just far enough from London to have its own heartbeat. There’s poetry, there’s music, and there’s comedy as well. I like it here. I sometimes think if just one person aged 14, 15, 16 watched me and thought ‘you know what, I’m gonna go to uni and do something a bit different’ then my job would be done. I’m sure it’s up your own bum to think like that it but I pretend to myself I might have an effect.”

Tickets are priced at £12, with the show starting at 7.15pm. For further details please contact Stephen Watson on 0771 996 7959 or stephenwatson2009@live.co.uk.

Keep up to date with all things Southend Festival at www.southendfestival.com or ‘like’ it on Facebook.

Festival highlights:

Kite Surfing and Making Family Taster Day

Southend Marine Activity Centre, Eastern Esplanade

Friday 4th June,

10am – 4pm Free entry

Take the first step to Kite Surfing with free beach-based activities. Face painting also available, so pack a picnic and bring the whole family down to the beach to enjoy the fun!

Kite Surfing Taster Sessions: ages 8 (dependant on size) to Adults. Take the first step to learning to Kite Surf with expert tuition.

Kite Making Activities and Test Flights: ages 3-11

Just like ‘Blue Peter’ you’ll have the opportunity to design and construct your very own kite from a variety of materials and of course that ‘sticky back plastic’. Then onto the beach for that all important maiden flight-will it or won’t it fly!

The person who creates the best designed kite and the one that flies the longest wins their very own brand new kite plus goodie bag courtesy of the Southend Marine Activity Centre.

House Wives

Book & Lyrics by Mary Evans, Music by Richard Brown Presented by South Essex College

Palace Theatre, Southend

Tuesday 8th – Thursday 10th June

8th and 9th June: 7.30pm – 9.30pm 10th June: 2.30pm – 4.30pm and 7.30pm – 9.30pm

Tickets: £10 concessions £6

Looking for the perfect antidote to election fever? A woman’s place is in the House in this brand new musical comedy, which makes its world premiere at the Palace Theatre Westcliff this June. Based on Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, HOUSE WIVES pits the politicians’ wives against their warmongering husbands, with the ladies refusing to allow their menfolk to advance in the bedroom until they broker peace. But when a Man Flu pandemic sends Britain’s men to their sick beds, the House Wives move into the House of Commons – but can girlpower alone really govern the country?

Call The Palace Theatre on 01702 351135 to book tickets

Faculty of Media and Creative Arts: End of Year Exhibition (FE) – Southend

Art and Design studios, 5th & 6th floors, Southend Campus, South Essex College, Luker Road

Wednesday 16th – Saturday 19th June

10am – 4pm

Free entry

This annual exhibition turns the College into the largest gallery in Essex and is a unique chance for completing students from South Essex College’s faculty of Media and Creative arts to show off their work in a professional setting. Over 250 students from Foundation Diploma Art & Design, Access to Higher Education Art & Design, National Diploma Fine Art; Interior and 3D Product Design; Graphics; Multimedia; General Art & Design; Fashion and Clothing; Fashion Promotion; Publishing and Photography demonstrate their skills and unique talent. Come and see some of the best emerging talent in the South East.

BA (Hons) Fashion Design: Graduate Fashion Show

Park Inn Hotel, Southend

Wednesday16th June

8pm

£5 – Tickets are limited

See for yourself on the glamorous catwalk, the wild and wonderful fashion designs of the next Vivienne Westwood, Dolce and Gabbana and Stella McCartney, as graduating students from South Essex College’s BA (Hons) Fashion Design showcase their final collections.

To buy tickets call the Faculty direct on 01702 220601.

Fake Blood on the Lens: Making Low budget Horror

Ground Floor TV Studio, Southend Campus, South Essex College, Luker Road

Thursday 17th June

7pm – 8.30pm

£2 (pay on the door)

Cert: 15

Dubbed an ‘auteur’ by Empire magazine, join Essex-based award-winning horror writer/director Pat Higgins for a fast-moving breakdown of the production process of a low-budget horror movie. From tips and tricks for the writing process, via the best ways to spray blood up the walls, all the way through to the perils of securing international distribution. Attend…if you dare!

High Street Music Event

Saturday 19th June

Victoria Plaza, Southend High Street

1pm – 5pm

Free entry

A fun-tastic High Street Music Event with BBC Essex’s Ollie and Mike, which takes place from 1pm -5pm on Saturday 19th June at the Victoria Plaza.

If anything like last year’s Festival crowd pleaser, this event is set to have you bopping, rather than shopping down Southend High Street, and unlike shopping, the event costs nothing, bargain! Confirmed hotly tipped acts and emerging talents include Peppermint Apes, Slums and Darren Jones, with those chaps from the Beeb, Ollie and Mike, compeering.

Hotly tipped acts and breakthrough bands will be performing in Southend High Street throughout the day including Peppermint Apes, Slums, Darren Jones and more. BBC Essex Radio’s Ollie and Mike will be compeering the event.

Southend Book Fair

Southend Campus, South Essex College, Luker Road

Saturday 26th June

10am – 4pm

Free entry

Now in its fourth year, this event is more than just about books. You will find lots of authors, all available to talk to, presenting their works. This is the opportunity to get limited edition books signed by the authors.

Furthermore, Southend Book Fair presents the chance for those attending to take part in free course tasters covering topics such as: Screenwriting, Creative Writing, Digital Photography, Abode Photoshop software and Art.

During Southend Book Fair, in the studio theatre, there will be talks by authors, people from the publishing industry, talks about amateur dramatics, original music and recitations – all for free. Come and see for yourself and discover what it means to be part of the world behind the bookshelves.

For details of what else the Festival has to offer, visit www.southendfestival.com, pick up a free brochure or follow all things Festival on Facebook. The best of the Fest is yet to come!