Arundel Festival gets ready with 2020 virtual showcase of all the talents

The pieces are slipping into place for Arundel Festival of the Arts’ 2020 virtual showcase – a celebration of the depth and range of talent in and around the town.
Jane MoteJane Mote
Jane Mote

With the real festival cancelled because of COVID, the festival team have put together an impressive online showcase instead.

They have filmed 18 new videos, and with pre-existing videos, will show 30 videos in total throughout what should have been the 2020 Arundel Festival of the Arts.

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beechtobeach director and producer Jane Mote has been organising the films – a challenge which has been enormous.

“The logistics and scale of what we were trying to do on limited resources was stretching us all, but the goodwill of all the artists and performers and the commitment of the festival committee of volunteers made the impossible seem possible.

“The most important thing was our audience. We want as many people as possible to get a taste of the festival to whet their appetites for 2021 when the town will be bursting back to full festival life.”

Festival chairman Sharon Blaikie was determined that something should happen, Jane says: “She was determined that Arundel wasn’t going to go backwards during the lockdown. She has got such energy and commitment to making something happen.

“Doing nothing was not going to be an option.

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“The concept is the virtual showcase. As the festival couldn’t happen on the streets as in normal times, Sharon decided that the show would go on by hook or by crook… and we are the hook and the crook!

“We have been making films and producing and editing them and bringing together.

“There will be some existing videos, but the majority of the videos are original content which we have filmed with the artists.

“We took over the Victoria Institute for a day and we filmed back to back from 9am to 9pm.

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“Sharon and her team and organised the slots, and we had to allow quite wide slots because of all the various health and safety regulations. We had social distancing; we had temperature-taking; we had all the windows open.

“But we just felt that we needed that live element to the festival. The first group we recorded were a trio called Superstrings. They came to do a set and we had people outside that could hear them and were listening… though obviously we couldn’t encourage a crowd.

“But afterwards the singer said that was the first time they had performed a song together all the way through for six months.

“It meant so much to all the performers. We had a proper sound set-up, and we were there doing the film, and that was their audience, but all the acts said it was just amazing to have a professional set-up and to be performing again. It was quite moving and people were also really excited by it. It was just a really lovely atmosphere.”

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Across the films, the team have represented the breadth of the intended festival, including theatre and historical tours as well. Jane is also delighted with the ingenuity of the pre-recorded videos which include a gazebo gig and also opera in a driveway.

The virtual festival will also see the premiere of a new venue, The Black and White Bus – a venue which is, in fact, a black and white bus: “It has been converted into a recording studio and we have recorded three acts there yesterday.”

The new-style virtual festival will run from August 21-31 and will see ten Virtual Showcase programmes, one launched at 8.20pm every night on Arundel Festival of the Arts’ new YouTube channel, presented by Arundel resident Daisy Watson.

Much of the showcase content, as well as extra entertainment, is available via the Festival’s re-vamped social media - Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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Among the acts are Superstrings, Festival regular Joe Butt not only performing solo but also accompanying his son Victor; Frank Register; Will Hall; a Kate Bush tribute band; Sirens acoustic; and one of Drip Action Theatre company’s theatre trail plays.

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