For four days only, and curated by artist Simon Buckley, the Not Quite Light Festival returns to Salford featuring art, music and performance between 28th and 31st March...
"The weekend the clocks go forward, the festival uses the time of dawn and dusk as a moment of inspiration for reflection and ideas" state the organisers "With newly commissioned work by artists, musicians, historians and filmmakers alongside walks, tours, talks and workshops, the festival focuses on Salford as a place of change and regeneration, and uses this to ask how our cities are changing, from a range of perspectives".
There's thirty events happening, including The Ordsall Peacock: Guardian of Memories, in which local children and residents will take a peacock made out of scrap metal to Ordsall Park, and then light it, performing a dance around it as night falls. The free event on 29th March (6:30pm-8:15pm) can either be viewed in the Park itself or from a resident's flat on the 11th floor of Nine Acre Court (click here for more details and to reserve tickets).
On the night before, 28th March, The Lights Are On is an event where children can produce their own lanterns at Ordsall Community Arts which will feature at the Peacock event, and there will also be live music, projections and food (6pm-8pm free click here for details)
On Friday 29th March, from 10pm to 11:55pm, Dark Borders at Greengate Square will see author Nick Dunn lead a nightwalk exploring 'What happens when the identity of places become smudged?...By exploring the two cities of Salford and Manchester at night we can experience how time becomes elastic and the nature of space changes' (£8 - click here for details)
Earlier on the same night (7:30pm-10:30pm) there's a world premiere of a play Beneath These Tarmac Cracks which tells the story of a Salfordian woman, born in 1913, who has developed a regenerative neurological disease that makes her vividly remember every second of her life (£12.50/£10 click here for details).
Saturday 30th March will see an all day event called Children Dream A City in which children (over six years old) get to imagine and build a city with card (£4 per session 11am-1pm/2pm-4pm click here for details), while on both the Saturday and Sunday, between 2pm and 4pm, Courtyard Creations sees free live music at Five Four Studios on Oldfield Road from musicians ranging from Ideal Forgery, to Teri Birtwistle and The Northern Rambler (click here for details).
Saturday also sees Sofa Memories on The Meadow, a free event in which artist Sally Hayes projects films full of personal memories onto the back of a sofa (6:30pm-7:30pm free click here for details), while Heart and Soul at Five Four Studios (7:30pm until late) features Dave Haslam and The Option (Paris) performing ambient soundscape Breathless, with an accompanying live video created by Donna Jevens, plus spoken word performers Eve Piper, Karl Hildebrandt, and Kieren King, and acoustic singer/songwriter Evie Russell. The night ends with Salfrica, a club night of Afro-flavoured house and disco with DJs Levi Love and Selina Nongaliphe Oliphant (aka SNO) (£9/£5 after party click here for details)
"I'm fascinated by Salford, the city I live in and, as an artist, it's impossible not to respond to the transition of the streets around me, as the pace of regeneration causes such rapid change" says Simon Buckley "I'm out at dawn as it's so magical, a time of possibility and beauty. I often feel as if I've stepped through the back of a wardrobe, and I never tire of seeing the new day emerge from the darkness.
"The festival will be held on the weekend that the clocks go forward, the official start of summertime" he adds "It allows us to reflect and to consider where we are in our world, and what we want from the city in which we live. The artists and performers that I've brought together are there, as always, to provide us with inspiration, to begin a conversation. The reason I do this is because of the magic that happens in the half light..."
Not Quite Light Festival
Thursday 28th-Sunday 31st March
Various venues and prices
For full details on all the events click here
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