The Alternative Village Fete at The Festival of Thrift
When: 21-22 September 2013 Time: 10.30am to 5.00pm
Where: Lingfield Point, Darlington, County Durham
Part of the Alternative Village Fete past project
The Alternative Village Fete at The Festival of Thrift
Home Live Art in association with The Festival of Thrift will present its signature Alternative Village Fete on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd September.
Home Live Art’s Alternative Village Fetes are energetic, celebratory events that appeal to a huge audience range.
They are a platform for new work and ideas within the broad theme of ‘the British Fete’ with a participatory and multidisciplinary approach to the programme content that encompasses live and performance installations, live music, communal dance, craft, food and produce.
The Alternative Village Fete context provides the opportunity for contributing artists to test new ideas and make new work around specific themes.
The Festival of Thrift is the UK’s biggest festival of up-cycling, simpler living and finding the magic of re-making stuff so it looks good and lasts longer. It will consist of a whole range of workshops, activities, stalls and exhibitions which have been inspired by Wayne Hemingway and Gerardine Hemingway (Red or Dead). The Festival is directed by Stella Hall and produced by David Bilton (DGB Events).
The Festival of Thrift is supported by Arts Council England, Darlington Borough Council, Marchday at Lingfield Point.
Artists include:
Rock A Hula!
Rock a Hula is an award-winning “standout 1950s event” (The Sunday Times), presenting all the fun of the fifties in a tiki tidal wave! Come and join Miss Constance Irkles, our glamorous show stopping starlet; learn to hula hoop and join in our mass hula!
www.rockahula.org
Ella Good & Nicki Kent
Total Eclipse of The Head
Total Eclipse of The Head is an interactive performance for one. In our salon we create radical cuts and styles inspired by music, while you listen on headphones to your favourite playlist. Choose from The Kate Bush Bush, The 80’s Power Mullet Montage, or let us crimp you back to the 90’s.
Ella Good and Nicki Kent are Bristol based artists who make contemporary performance and live art, and are members of artist-led space Residence.
www.ellaandnicki.com
@ellaandnicki
Helen Schell
As we venture into space and look for other life beyond planet Earth, we will need to take some of our greatest traditions with us. There will need to be fetes in space! A new Space Age begins. Craft your own DIY rocket & flag to find exoplanets, space stations and moon-bases by means of a star map. The Star Map of the Milky Way will help you discover habitable zones with alien life. By finding a suitable colonisation site you will earn your astronaut mission badge. Be careful not disappear down the Super Massive Black Hole in the middle of our galaxy.
Helen Schell is based in Newcastle and works on art projects inspired by space exploration. This involves collaborating with scientists and she is an Esero Space Ambassador. Over the last year, she has been working on projects examining ideas about the human colonisation of space. They have included being ‘Maker in Residence’ at the Centre for Life. Running workshops at the Science Museum in London and being a judge for NASA’s international children’s art competition.
Francis Thorburn
Francis Thorburn is a practicing artist currently working with performance and sculpture. The main concerns of his practice are the body, labor, masculinity and the loss of physicality in contemporary life. Consumption and sustainability within the context of our current socio-economical climate is at the heart of his project the Alternative Transport Network (ATN).
Under the title of Minister of Alternative Transport he has been developing a series of sculptures and processional performances, which use sculptural devices (vehicles) to head the procession. He wishes to fascinate and capture the audiences’ attention with the absurd and the extravagant, through ritualized action and the epic machines.
For the Festival of Thrift Thorburn will be trialing his newest vehicle. This low riding man powered vessel will be put through its paces at the grounds of the festival. The team of men operating the vehicle will also be sporting the new ATN uniforms… a sight not to be missed!
Paula Adams
Holiday Resort
Free Summer Holiday! Save money! No packing…no hassle…
Paula Adams’ Holiday Resort gives visitors to the Festival of Thrift’s Alternative Village Fete the opportunity to ‘holiday at home’ and make their own souvenirs to take away with them. They can pose with deckchair, beach ball, bucket & spade beside the palm trees and dolphins for their holiday snaps.
Holiday Resort’s thrift culture lets people take a ‘staycation’ by simply looking at and experiencing their surroundings with fresh eyes and using their imagination.
Or, as 19th century philosopher Xavier de Maistre suggests in his book ‘Journey Around My Room’, having a holiday at home may be “particularly suited to those afraid of storms, robberies and high cliffs”.
Paula Adams is an artist based in Newcastle, currently exploring the way memory is captured through snapshots, souvenirs and travel writing.
Theresa Easton & Kay Henderson
Theresa Easton is a printmaker based at 36 Lime Street, in the Ouseburn Valley the cultural heart of Newcastle. Easton is interested in pushing the boundaries of printmaking, using techniques to create installations and engaging events that invite collaboration. Kay Henderson has been a Community Artist for over 30 years, training in Ceramic & Glass. Henderson’s background incorporates re-cycled material to create artwork. Together they bring an emotive response to the current economic climate with their hand printed broadsides promoting self-help solutions and home remedies.
Frances Arnold
Survival Kit
Survival Kit is a unique collection of pocket sized companions championing self sufficiency and lightness of being in daily life during harsh economic times. Join artist Frances Arnold to try out low-fi printing and book making techniques using found and affordable materials.
Swap skills and create your own portable survival guide to life:
• Cut, crease & take away a Pocket-Sized Book of Rants & Happinesses to ease your woes;
• Add to an eclectic collection of bright and wordy Book Bunting;
• Forecast your future & create positive messages for others using Paper Fortune Cookies;
• Print with Lemon Juice on paper to create hidden messages for loved ones;
• Escape with a Paper Airplane at noon in the Free-Form Flypast
Frances Arnold is a visual artist living in Newcastle upon Tyne, working with paper, print and a variety of natural materials to create site-specific installations and artist books.
Charity Shop DJ
Charity Shop DJ are delighted to be in Darlington!
They’ll be dropping into the Festival of Thrift with their Choose Your Cheese emporium of lost vinyl.
Flick through discarded records recovered from charity shops, skips, and municipal tips; discover the memories locked in vinyl, and dance to the tunes you thought you’d forgotten.
Create your own weekend soundtrack – and help Charity Shop DJ squeeze the last drop of value from our musical pasts.
Dance, play, share, and celebrate. This is Thrift with a Lift.
Penta’paper – Deborah Andrews
Penta’paper delights in bringing people’s ideas and wishes to life… This interactive machine needs your participation to create unique and original artworks. What you ask for and what you get in return, is always The Unexpected!
Created by artist and illustrator Deborah Andrews, this highly inventive and engaging installation brings joy and fun to audiences of all ages and backgrounds across the UK.
