What does it take to get people interested in visiting Doncaster? I have lived in Leeds for over twenty years and prior to this week, I had only been to Doncaster town centre once and I saw the inside of the building I was working in and the car park. I’m not quite sure why that was. I guess the simple answer is that it just didn’t appeal. Yet this week I have been to Doncaster a staggering twice in preparation for the DNweekeND, a festival run by the Right Up Our Street team. It’s happening on May 9th-11th in the squares, streets and shopping centres in Doncaster town centre and other locations further afield.
While I was visiting, I decided to take a look round the town. It surprised me because it wasn’t what I had expected. I liked the cobbled pedestrianised streets, and the pillared entrance to one shopping walkway. Some of the streets had these oddly appealing stone tree sculptures and I discovered a lovely vintage Georgian Tea-Room. All this makes Doncaster far more attractive than I had anticipated, and it only took me twenty years. I can’t think of a better way to get people to connect positively with Doncaster than a free festival that takes place in the streets, squares, and fountains. What’s great is that the activities on offer are imaginative and unusual. I am genuinely interested in who comes to the festival and what impression it leaves on them. DNweekeND will animate the streets of Doncaster from Friday 9 – Sunday 11 May. Here’s some of what the DNweekeND Festival has to offer. For full details of programme please, click here.
Two curious sounding events that caught my eye are Pif-Paf‘s Submercycle, where you can take an imaginative underwater journey ( see here for an example) and The Camera obscura created by artist Nick Dawson – giving the chance to see Doncaster upside down! Anything that turns things on its head gets a thumbs up from me!
I like the idea of The Endless Doodle which is a large-scale doodle led by choreographer-artists Wayne Sables and Charlotte Armitage in Frenchgate shopping centre. Its an on-going project by Wayne Sables Company and people have been sending in their doodles over the past year, which are going to be compiled into a book. There’s quite a few other unusual activities people can get involved in too. What I like about this festival is it’s inventiveness, which seems wholly appropriate if trying to engage a wide range of people not necessarily that interested in arts and culture. I think it has activities that will appeal to quieter more introverted people as well as those you would expect for more outgoing types. There is a specially decorated red van, ‘The Artcar’ that is hosting a mobile ceramics workshop, a fossil handling workshop, and a ‘dreamscape’ that transforms a space in the town and can be changed over the course of the festival. Face Doodles offers a new take on face painting and ‘Sketch Mob’ is a mass public drawing competition.
There is also ‘pop up’ hip hop dancing from Rationale Productions who had a sell-out tour ‘In My Shoes’ in 2013 and who are currently in residency at Cast in Doncaster and also Sadlers Wells’ internationally acclaimed Breakin’ Convention who are performing throughout saturday of the festival including an evening show at Cast, the new state-of-the-art venue in Doncaster. I love the sound of the Urban Grower’s ‘crop shop’ giving insights into guerrilla gardening. Other things on offer include fire throwers, local bands, and a 120 person choir, as well as Hair Story an opportunity to share your hair stories with artists Lydia Cottrell and Adam Ekin. Oh and did I mention, Yorkshire Life Aquatic’s ‘Mermaids’ will be installed in the fountains outside Cast with opportunities for festival goers to learn ‘dryland’ synchronise swimming?
DNweekeND,part of the Yorkshire Festival, takes place on 9 – 11 MAY 2014 You can tweet about what you discover with the hashtags #DNweekeND #bepartofit @RightUpRstreet @YFest2014
Right Up Our Street is supported by Arts Council England’s Creative people and places fund. There aim is to make more Arts and Cultural activities happen for and with local people across the borough of Doncaster. DNweekeND is Doncaster’s first ever Right Up Our Street Arts festival and will see free entertainment, performances and installations from local and international artists transforming the borough. Right Up Our Street is a consortium of Doncaster Arts organisations and supported using public funding by the National lottery through Arts Council England until 2016.
