Coming up in March…
This weekend catch the Pop Up Pedestal across Havant Borough, a street theatre performance about who we commemorate in our public spaces and why. Popping up for 30 minute performances at St Peter’s Square today, West Street tomorrow, and The Coach House at Staunton Country Park on Sunday. Bristol Light Festival returns until 6 Mar to fill the city with light and colour, featuring six world premier works, brand new for Bristol, alongside some of the UK’s best talent, all making their Bristol debut at carefully selected locations across the city centre.
A series of spellbinding outdoor events, blending spectacular projection, fire and music, inspired by local stories and landscapes from across Newcastle, Northumberland and North Tyneside are planned until 13 Mar. North of the Tyne, Under the Stars will be heading to Fenham and Hexham on 4-5 Mar, and Newcastle City Centre for the Festival Finale on 10-13 Mar.
Head to the Coventry Cathedral ruins to experience Where There Is Light, an immersive sound and light installation sharing the voices and stories of sanctuary seeking communities from across the country. It asks questions about where we find light in our lives, in ourselves, in others and in the world around us. Led by art collectives Squidsoup and ArtReach, running until 5 Mar. Streets across Coventry and Warwickshire are once again lighting up their front windows and gardens to become beautiful night-time walking trails for Window Wonderland 2022, running until 25 Mar.
Join Motionhouse in Centenary Square in Birmingham from 17-20 Mar for Wondrous Stories, a spectacular open-air show to kick off the Birmingham 2022 Festival. Featuring Motionhouse’s internationally renowned professional dance-circus company alongside a mass cast of hundreds from Critical Mass, Freewheelin Dance Company, Motionhouse Youth, Sampad and DanceXchange, expect large-scale immersive action and plenty of thrills as stories, a giant book and characters tumble out of the night sky!
About Us, one of the ten UNBOXED projects, kicked off in Paisley on 28 Feb. Created by 59 Productions, The Poetry Society & Stemettes, About Us is a free open-air spectacular event using cutting-edge projection mapping, animation, music and poetry to celebrate our extraordinary connections to everything around us: past, present and future. About Us is in Paisley until 6 Mar, and will then visit Derry-Londonderry on 15-21 Mar, Caernarfon on 30 Mar-5 Apr, Luton on 14-12 Apr, and Hull from 30 Apr-6 May.
An astronaut, talking bins, lasers and a celebrity cat are just some of the things popping up on the University of Warwick campus for One Night of Wander on 12 Mar. See Urban Astronaut by Highly Sprung at 4.30 & 6.30pm, explore Rana Begum’s vibrant exhibition Dappled Light, and beam your own bespoke message across campus with LudicRooms’ The Laser Conveyor.
Join Freedom Festival in Hull City Centre 18-19 Mar for The Awakening, an exciting new event celebrating the movement from Winter to Spring, Hull’s maritime identity, heritage, folklore and mythology, and our relationship to the environment. Stroll through the Fire Garden by Out There Arts in Queen’s Gardens, stop at the Rose Bowl to marvel at Dan Acher’s Borealis, experience Halo by Illumpahonium in Zebedee’s Yard, and much more!
This March FarGo Village presents Spring Up Festival, a weekend of magical outdoor theatre, music & poetry from 26-27 Mar in Conventry. Look forward to performances from locally and nationally renowned theatre companies, and workshops for all the family to get stuck into. On 23 Mar Hikapee & Huldufugl bring The Hidden People to Ffwrnes Llanelli, an exciting new show that combines Icelandic folklore, circus, aerial arts, performance and creative technology, to tell the story of a female architect who’s faced with the controversial task of building a hydroelectric dam in the Icelandic highlands.
Different Light, SKDC and Bourne Town Council present Bourne in Lights 2022, a mini Light Night event in and around North Street in Bourne on 19 Mar from 6pm-9pm. Installations will include the Marvellous Mechanical Musical Machine, interactive Digital Graffiti, the Shadow Stage, and a special illuminated installation made by local school children and artist Helen Graham, plus the always brilliant Illumaphonium. There’s two more days to see Ignite: Fire & Fantasy at Nymans in West Sussex, the perfect setting for this new, after-dark illuminated trail, where you wander between flickering flames and majestic trees from one amazing space to another.
London Remixed Festival returns 25-26 Mar with performances from over 25 cutting edge bands and DJs across five stages over two days, all in one vibrant venue nested in the heart of Shoreditch. The festival is a celebration of the best emerging musical talent and genres and will offer creativity, fun and madness, a buzzing atmosphere and music. In Harrogate on 24-26 Mar be sure to check out the Fire & Light Experience, a trail of discovery that reimagines the natural world around us. Harrogate as a destination famed for it’s water will bring all the elements of nature alive; earth, air, water and fire in a spectacle of brilliance and blaze.
Spilsby Light Night will return to light up the streets of Spilsby on 26 Mar, with a range of projections, illuminations, performances, and things to do. In Spain, Mostra Igualada runs 31 Mar- 3 Apr, a great showcase for the best shows for children and young audiences, which annually brings together around 30,000 spectators and more than 1,000 professionals to Igualada.
