This Halloween we’re trick n’ treating you to a list of 10 frighteningly good Outdoor Arts events happening across the UK on October 31…Click here to read Halloween Outdoor Arts Events: 10 Frighteningly Good Things To Do on October 31
Over the past decade, Penrith’s annual masquerade has become one of Cumbria’s most iconic cultural events. Featuring fire, music, masks and mayhem, the festival is a hedonistic celebration of country life and rural traditions, encouraging visitors to don a mask and ‘join the herd’ for its torch lit procession through the town. This year, for the first time, the event will be held over three days instead of its usual one, in an effort to diffuse crowds and help enforce social distancing. Regardless of what day they visit, visitors can still expect fire-breathers, rocking musicians, larger-than-life lanterns, street theatre, food and fun. The Winter Droving is created by Eden Arts and will feature performances from Nutkhut, Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, incredible fire breathing dragon PAKA and more.
After an epic journey across borders and seas, Little Amal’s journey draws to a close next week as she slowly begins the last leg of her journey back to Manchester. Today, she will arrive in Sheffield the traditional way, on a barge! Over the weekend you can find her in Barnsley, where you can also see Syrian Palestinian artist Maryam Samaan’s bespoke artwork The Rope of Hope installed in the grounds of Wentworth Castle, and Wigan, where she will visit the town’s thriving Pier Quarter. After taking a rest on Monday, Little Amal will finally arrive in Rochdale, Greater Manchester on the Tuesday, accompanied by a spectacular display from Skylight Circus Arts. Wednesday heralds the final day of this revolutionary international festival, with grand finale When The Birds Land. In this spectacular event, Little Amal will walk with a giant flock of puppet birds, created by local schools, refugee communities and Manchester International Festival, beginning her next even longer journey: creating a new life in a new home.
This year themed around memory, Ipswich’s annual celebration of art and adventure SPILL Festival begun earlier this week, with both outdoor and indoor events running right through to Sunday evening. There’s plenty to do outside – venture through a labyrinthine of tunnels and cavernous domes in Architects of Air’s striking sculpture Luminarium and tune into Ray Lee’s kinetic sound sculpture Chorus. Take your environmental anxieties out on the mic at Katy Dye’s Climate Grief Karaoke or join the Pyre Parade, Ipswich’s annual burning of bad news!
Family-friendly festival Pop Up London continues bringing free outdoor performances to famous locations across the capital this weekend, with events in Spitalfields Market, King’s Cross, St Felix Place and Grosvenor Square featuring Canapé Art by Levantes Dance Theatre, Feet off the Ground dance collective’s Creature Comforts, Pigfoot Theatre’s How to Save a Rock, Jack Defrost by Traceworks Dance, Metronomes Steel Orchestra, Gandini Juggling’s Smashed2, The Lips by Puppets with Guts plus many more. Also in the city, discover new light trail Illuminature at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and celebrate the Northern line extension at Line of Light outdoor festival in Nine Elms.
Boasting amazing light-based art installations from national and international artists, Lightpool brings a contemporary twist to a town famous for its illuminations. Heading into its final weekend, discover spellbinding interactive story The Nixies of Oakpool by The Electric Sunshine Project and Luma, an huge, eight-metre long, robotic inflatable snail who loves an audience. You can also see Luma at Frequency Festival, which returns this year to animate the streets of Lincoln, selecting connection as this year’s theme as a response to the environment, digital inequity and re-emerging from the pandemic. Other acts at Frequency include The Invisible Man by Altered States, Bees! The Colony by Artizani, Monolith by Zest Theatre, plus more.
