In the past, the Bath Fringe festival has featured cutting-edge theatre companies and performers, some of which have moved onto success with more mainstream audiences. The likes of Forced Entertainment, KAOS Theatre, Ridiculusmus, and The Tiger Lilies – of Shockheaded Peter fame – have graced previous Bath Fringe programmes, to name but a few. This year, the festival website proudly announces it has fulfilled some long-held ambitions to present the best festival ever. So, is this the case?
Steve Henwood, spokesman for the event, says the addition this year of the Spiegeltent is a highlight, but also fulfils one of those long-held ambitions.
‘Having the Spiegeltent has been an ambition since we first saw one at the [street] festival [Chalon dans la Rue] in Chalon-sur-Saône, getting on for a decade ago,’ Henwood explains.
The Spiegeltent, an Art Nouveau tent of mirrors, will be the location for live music performances in the evenings and free events during the day.
New singing sensation Jamie Cullen, who the media has flagged as the new Harry Connick Jnr or Frank Sinatra, is included in the Spiegeltent line-up, as well as sleazy cabaret act Voodoo Vaudeville and folk outfit Flook!
Henwood also points to the fact that a larger number of independent promoters and artists are involved in this year’s event, which has also been a goal for some years.
‘Bath has an extremely large, active, and, most of all, high quality artistic community, and we see the Fringe as – partly – the festival by and from that community,’ he observes.
This year’s Fringe includes several visual and performance arts events which are site-specific. These include the Bedlam Fair, which will take place at the glass-roofed Green Park Station, featuring all manner of weird and wonderful performers. Among the acts are acrobatic outfit Mimbre, featuring Flick Ferdinando, fresh from directing the award-winning Throat by Company F/Z. Two of the country’s top street clowns, Maynard FlipFlap & Mike ‘Odd’ Hancock, will also take part in this event.
Meanwhile, East London gallery, the Centre of Attention, is taking over the historic Beckford Tower.
Recently returned from an exhibition in San Francisco, Centre of Attention curators Pierre Coinde and Gary O’Dwyer are moving out of their gallery space once again, for their new installation as part of the Bath Fringe, entitled To Predict the Future You Must Change the Past.
The installation is a video work which captures and documents past exhibitions held at the Centre of Attention gallery. According to the curators, the installation parallels the William Beckford exhibition elsewhere in the tower.
Considering Beckford’s reclusive life, devoted to art and architecture, and his penchant for collecting news snippets on sex scandals whilst living at the tower, the curators envision that their installation will question visitors’ reactions to the historic building – and its former inhabitant – today.
Theatre programme highlights include The Slide Show from inventive company, People Show, while Adolf, by Pip Utton Theatre Company in collaboration with Guy Masterson, is appearing at the Theatre Royal for one night only on June 7.
Last year, the Fringe attracted around 25,000 people over the 17-day event, according to Henwood. He is optimistic that this year’s festival will be just as, if not more, successful, commenting that the Bath Fringe is unique because it doesn’t try to compete with the other Fringe festivals.
‘It doesn’t try to copy the Edinburgh model, it has run continously without a break for 22 years, and above all, it’s Bath that makes the difference – as a backdrop and for its connections with the artistic community here.’
Bath Fringe Festival begins today and runs until June 8. For full programme details visit www.bathfringe.co.uk
