Shoreham Wordfest launch Local and Live Festival

Working together with Ropetackle Arts Centre, they will be offering events every weekend from October 23 to December 5, featuring spoken word, drama, music and family events. The festival is supported with funding from the Arts Council and Adur District Council.

Wordfest programme director Rosalind Turner said: “The aim is to showcase local talent performing with smaller audiences, in line with government and public health guidelines. There will be some recording and on-line broadcasting of events so that they can be seen by people not able to attend the venue.”

The festival starts on Friday, October 23 with a talk on Shoreham’s Maritime History by historian Trevor Povey followed by a workshop on the poetry of Emily Dickinson on Saturday, October 24, and an evening performance by musician Mervyn Wallis with his band Alfonso the Magnificent.

“Throughout the festival there will be talks by popular speakers including Geoffrey Mead and Chris Hare, along with Louise Peskett on Notorious Women of Brighton and author Colin Grant with his critically acclaimed book Homecoming, Voices of the Windrush Generation. Actress Janet Behan has a new theatre piece, Kathleen and Me, about her grandmother and her famous sons, Brendan and Brian Behan. Janet’s husband, television director Dermot Boyd will be helping to record the various events.

“Musical acts include Gambian percussionist Musa Mboob and his band, based in Brighton, New Generation Jazz and Frank Greene Band featuring Danny and Ruby from South Coast Soul Revue.

“Children’s events include author Thomas Taylor on his series The Legends of Eerie on Sea and an afternoon family show by The Noise Next Door. This is My Theatre will perform the classic tale of The Snow Queen in December.”

Rosalind added: “We have been working on this project since we first knew that live indoor performances would be permitted again.

“However, operating with reduced audience numbers to allow for social distancing and Covid-safe precautions, means it is impossible to fund the events just with ticket income. The grant from the Arts Council means that we can go ahead with our plans, knowing that we can bring an exciting programme of live entertainment while also recording the events to show them online. This will reach a wider audience and will develop a new way of broadcasting events.”

Ropetackle’s programme director Anne Hodgson added: “We are very excited about the Local and Live Festival, which will be a whole community event. Ropetackle has developed a positive reputation as a safe venue with excellent feedback from people who have been coming to cinema and live shows.

“We are delighted to be working with Wordfest on this exciting programme which we are sure will appeal to people of all ages and interests. Please don’t delay to get your tickets for the events, which we are sure will sell out quickly.”

Tickets for most events are priced at £8 with a festival pass of ten events for £60.

Go to http://www.shorehamwordfest.com/whatson or www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk/whatson or call Ropetackle box office on 01273 464440.

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