festivals
theartsdesk Q&A: Jo Bartlett of the Green Man FestivalSunday, 15 August 2010![]() The Green Man festival takes place this coming weekend at the Glanusk estate near Abergavenny in the rolling hills of the Brecon Beacons. What begun in 2003 as a glorified gig for the husband and wife duo It's Jo And Danny has become the very... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Daniel Kitson/ Leisa Rea/ MisconceptionFriday, 13 August 2010![]() Daniel Kitson only occasionally performs at comedy venues at the Fringe these days - perhaps a late-night spot here and there, though not a full set - but it has become almost a tradition that he writes a new piece for the Traverse each year. On the... Read more... |
Ken Livingstone pitches for London SXSWThursday, 12 August 2010Former and, he hopes, future London Mayor Ken Livingstone (looking groovy in a fashion shoot, left) has announced if elected he hopes to create a similar Festival to South By South West, the successful music Expo in Austin, Texas that has launched... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Bregenz: The Genius of Mieczyslaw WeinbergSunday, 08 August 2010![]() Ever since I can remember, the composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg has played a walk-on part in histories of Soviet music. If you find him in an index at all (probably under Vainberg or Vajnberg, and usually with the first name given him by a box-ticking... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Verbier: Musicians Peak in the AlpsSunday, 01 August 2010![]() You want to see Yuri Bashmet, arguably the greatest living viola player, but you can't because you've chosen to go to a recital by Yevgeny Kissin, one of the world's top pianists, on the same evening in another hall. Even the option of dashing from... Read more... |
WOMAD 2010, Charlton ParkTuesday, 27 July 2010![]() “We all come from the same DNA, as Desmond Tutu is always reminding us, and we shouldn’t be surprised that these musical collaborations take place - and work so well.” That was Peter Gabriel's comment on the music at WOMAD last weekend, a festival... Read more... |
WOMAD 2, Charlton ParkTuesday, 27 July 2010![]() Its acronymic moniker stands for World Of Music, Arts and Dance, but the line-up at this year’s WOMAD is, as usual, very much skewed towards the first of those artforms – hailing from anywhere and everywhere between Australia and Azerbaijan. The “... Read more... |
theartsdesk in York: York Early Music FestivalTuesday, 20 July 2010![]() York is a bit like Oxford, I’ve always thought: that perplexing contrast between the central squares and marketplaces, in all their twee glory – all aimless, besatchelled French students and anoraked tourists queuing for tea at Betty’s – and the... Read more... |
Latitude Festival, SuffolkTuesday, 20 July 2010![]() So little time, so much stuff to see: that, in essence, is the story of Latitude. Now in its fifth year, this Suffolk festival offers a bewildering cultural cornucopia: music, theatre, dance, cabaret, comedy, circus, literature, poetry, as well as... Read more... |
Verbier Festival: an Alpine symphonyMonday, 19 July 2010![]() It becomes increasingly hard for a music festival to stick out from the crowd these days. But high culture, high summer and high altitude create a rousing major chord each July in Verbier, which can genuinely claim to be the only festival you reach... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Buxton: The Buxton FestivalSunday, 18 July 2010![]() As I alight from the train at Macclesfield and scramble into the back of the taxi which will take me on the 20-minute journey across the Pennines to Buxton and its eponymous festival, the driver announces with grim satisfaction, “I am now going to... Read more... |
BBC Proms 2010: theartsdesk recommends...Friday, 16 July 2010![]() It's that time again. The BBC Proms - in classical music terms, the greatest show on Earth - begin tonight with Mahler's massive Eighth Symphony. From Bryn Terfel in Wagner on the second night of the Proms to Sir John Eliot Gardiner and... Read more... |
