The Clacton Arts Festival
The Clacton Festival is a celebration of original performance, personal expression, and excellent cakes. Our aim is to stretch the imagination (and sometimes the body) and to ENJOY. We hope to give people the chance to take part in something different. To experience something new. One of the undoubted highlights of 2008 was the juxtaposition of the brilliant Bristol band, The Hinkley Veltones, with two bellydancers - Maylynn and Karin. It was a soaring, whirling feast for our ears and eyes:
The Clacton Festival began in 2005, with the idea of putting on a small scale arts festival focusing on original work. The emphasis was upon diversity (the 2005 Festival featured everything from puppetry and theatre to thrash metal, via stand-up comedy and boat-building).
Our aim was to engage creatively with the local population of Clacton - both in terms of audience and participation, and that remains one of the key aims of the festival.
But above all, our aim is to expose people (both audience and performers) to experiences and ideas that don't usually pass in front of them, and hopefully, at the same time, to break down some of the traditional barriers between audience and performer. To make being on stage a natural extension of being at the festival. We were lucky that this year so many of our performers were able to fulfill so many different roles. Here's an example: one minute Dennis Gould, the poet, was reading his poems, the next he was touching his toes in Gerry Turvey's workshop, the next he was leading a talk on printing.
This is what the Clacton Festival is all about.
The Festival Committee
Festival Director
Charlie Skelton
Creative Director
Hannah Borno
Special Projects & Film Coordinator
Lucie Donahue
Head of Cakes
Sharon Connor
Production Manager & Print Coordinator
Ben Caudell
Technical Director
Lee Kiddie
Art Director
Sarah Tavner
Director of Poetry
Cath Pick