The Playground Party 2013 is fast approaching, featuring a whole day of fantastic live music, dance, entertainment & fun for all the family. It is the culmination of the two-week long Garforth Arts Festival which is now firmly established as a part of the annual cultural calendar in the city of Leeds.
This year sees our biggest line-up ever. Headlining will be the critically-acclaimed BELLOWHEAD, taking to the stage after KATE RUSBY, RUBY TURNER and LAU. Our line-up continues with Love Society, Hope & Social and the Garforth Jazz Rock Band with more TBC.
Our indoor 300-seater auditorium will host Zulu Tradition, bringing you South African song and dance through the culmination of a region-wide project with over 500 young people. Phoenix Dance Theatre will showcase their work with over 15 schools from across Yorkshire. The Garforth Anthem composed by James Hamilton in collaboration with young orchestral musicians from the local community will be performed for the first time.
East Leeds FM will be hosting the ELFM Stage featuring some of the best local artists. Broadcasting live from the festival, you may bump into their correspondents around the site…
Magic, face painting, juggling, stilt walking and a whole host of other vibrant and exciting activities will be going on throughout the day.
At the peak of the Playground Party, a huge procession of musicians & dancers in themed costumes will circle the site to the sound of percussion, brass and song.
All in all, the Playground Party is a cultural extravaganza not to be missed, and at only £22 for a full day of entertainment, it might just be the best value festival day in the entire UK!
During the two weeks running up to the Playground Party there are numerous other events and activities taking place, notably including the fantastic flamenco guitarist Eduardo Niebla on Sunday 30th June in St Mary’s Church, Garforth.
We will also be holding several gigs at the Garforth Working Men’s Club. Jacobean Ruff and support on Thursday 27th June, Hayley Gaftarnick and friends on Tuesday 2nd July and a celebration of British 50’s and 60’s rock’n’roll and jive with Hot Foot Powder performing the classic beatles album Please Please Me on Thursday 4th July.
The Great Big Paint will involve hundreds of primary school children and other local people in cutting edge digital visual arts project using the virtual painting system FriiSpray. Everyone will create an image; these will then be combined in a video and screened around the town, in public spaces and onto buildings.