Youth sets the tone

Friday, August 30, is the big night in Lewes, when hundreds of young people will celebrate the opening of Artwave, Lewes District Council's month-long festival of the visual arts.

Youthwave will showcase the talents of Starfish, the local youth music project, which will perform on a dray specially loaned by Harveys Brewery and sited in the High Street.

The top half of Lewes High Street will be closed from 6pm to 10pm and the evening kicks off with a procession involving children who have taken part in workshops at the Castle and at the YMCA making banners and willow constructions to carry on the route.

The YMCA will host a programme of youth dance, flamenco and jazz dance followed by a programme of films from young film makers working at the centre.

There will be dance demonstrations in the street by a team from Lewes Youth Centre and in the Gun Garden at Lewes Castle, and a half-pipe skateboard ramp will be installed for young skateboarders to do their stuff.

Finale to the street programme will be 45 minutes of fantastic music from Big Sugah.

Many shops at the top of the town will stay open late and dozens of artists taking part in the visual arts festival will open their studios for the evening.

The Artwave festival itself involves hundreds of local artists exhibiting in nearly 80 different venues across the district. Since its launch in 1994 it has grown from a week-long event involving a handful of artists to one of the biggest celebrations of the visual arts in the south.

Free full-colour brochures detailing the Artwave programme and a four-page leaflet listing the activities on August 30 are available from tourist information centres, shops and arts venues, or send an A5 stamped addressed envelope to the Arts Officer, Lewes District Council, Southover House, Southover Rd, Lewes, E.Sussex, BN7 1DW.