Activate’s biennial festival, Inside Out Dorset, has won gold in the Tourism Event/Festival of the Year category in the Dorset Tourism Awards. They received the award at a glamorous ceremony held at The Tank Museum on 26 January, where winners from all categories were announced.
27,500 visitors attended Inside Out Dorset in September 2021, experiencing extraordinary events in extraordinary places. At 5 stunning outdoor locations across Dorset, over two weekends in September 2021, audiences were wowed by 104 performances featuring 24 UK and international artists alongside opportunities to join in for 1,280 participants.
Among the many highlights were the installations of artist Luke Jerram’s astonishing Gaia at Moors Valley Country Park and Forest and the Symondsbury Estate. Two world premieres – Partnering With Earth, by theatre-maker Dave Young, aka The Shouting Mute; and Geophonic, artist Lorna Rees’s uplifting and other-worldly response to the landscape. The festival also commissioned another UK premiere, Whistlers, Red Herring theatre company’s comic exploration of birdsong, dialect and extinction.
Dorset-based companies were commissioned across the festival and a programme of outdoor circus and dance was seen in Poole and Christchurch. The festival was brought to a spectacular finale in Weymouth with Sense of Unity featuring the UK-based Worldbeaters drumming team and the mesmerising giant puppets of Dundu, from Germany.
Kate Wood, Activate’s Executive and Artistic Director said, “We are delighted that the success of Inside Out Dorset 2021 has been recognised in this way. We were joined in our category (Tourism Event / Festival of the Year) by Sherborne Abbey Festival and We are Weymouth, who we know provided great events in 2021 too. Planning is underway for this year’s Inside Out Dorset and we can’t wait to replicate the success by offering extraordinary events in extraordinary locations, and seeing tourists and locals enjoying great art in our wonderful county.”
Save the date: Inside Out Dorset, 15-24 Sep 2023.
Find out more here.
