Celebration of Chichester's finest talents Culture Spark has launched

The first event of Culture Spark launched at the Cathedral tonight (March 29) with an extravaganza of performances featuring some of Chichester's best creatives.
By Megan Baker & Joss Roupell
Published 29th Mar 2022, 22:24 BST
Updated 30th Mar 2022, 11:32 BST

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A wonderful season of events, performances, live entertainment and community projects has launched, with the first taking place this evening.

The aim is to give everyone the chance to enjoy or participate in an amazing cultural experience and celebrate multiple milestones of some of the district’s cultural organisations.

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Mexican percussionist Alonso Mendoza kicked off the evening with an enchanting drumming routine on African and Brazilian drums. This was followed by local primary school children lighting the stage with home-made lanterns – a prelude to the Carnival of Lights event in June.

Lila Dance. Picture by Peter Langdown.Lila Dance. Picture by Peter Langdown.
Lila Dance. Picture by Peter Langdown.

Lila Dance premiered Seasoned, their new duet created during lockdown, an example of the creativity that still thrived during difficult times.

Emily Barden then brought her 50-strong West Sussex Sings choir, singing a vast array of numbers including The Beatles classic 'Here Comes The Sun' and Chichester native Tom Odell's moving song Heal.

Acoustic band Big Gust of Wind were accompanied by seven poets on stage who recited poetry as the band played, and Helen Solly displayed her sculpture which was based around the Culture Spark logo.

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The evening concluded with a jawdropping digital projection by artists and technologists, MakeAmplif.

Celebrations will be taking place to recognise 60 years of Chichester Festival Theatre; 40 years of Pallant House Gallery; 30 years of Chichester Cinema at New Park’s International Film Festival; 10 years of The Novium Museum and the Festival of Chichester; and even more impressively, 200 years of the Canal Trust! All of the organisations will be holding their own exciting events as part of the season to mark this special year.

The next events take place at Medmerry Mill in Selsey tomorrow (March 30) at 6.30pm and the following evening (March 31) at the Cowdray Ruins in Midhurst at 6.30pm.

Here's our list of the biggest events of the year

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Related topics:Cathedral