Wandworth Arts Fringe makes its return
South London’s first arts festival of the year, Wandsworth Arts Fringe returns from June 25 to July 11, featuring street performances, circus, dance, music, theatre and more.
The festival features more than 130 events, online and live, and all ticket sales go to the presenting artists.
This year, the festival is erecting a covid-safe main stage – a big top circus tent in the heart of Wandsworth where artists will appear alongside local creative talent.
The WAF Big Top will host a 10-day programme of events in King George’s Park, with contemporary circus company Lost in Translation.
There will be an opening cabaret night on June 25, with a teaser from Lost In Translation, pop and prosthetics from Marcus Megastar, and contemporary aerial with Maisie Luk.
Festival residents Lost In Translation’s latest show, Above, will perform a circus fable inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel, The Baron in the Trees from June 26 to 27.
On the same dates, Trajectory Theatre will combine augmented reality with live performance in The Suitcase Circus.
From June 30 to July 3, Wandsworth Arts Fringe will celebrate local creatives with a four-day showcase.
This will feature an evening of ballet, breakdance and beatboxing from Tavaziva Dance; CONGREGO! and a fiesta of Latin American music and dance from the World Heart Beat Music Academy.
Providence House will present a showcase of music, dance and virtual works created in lockdown by young people.
The festival will also take to the streets. Audiences will be able to discover mobile silent discos with party tour guide Guru Dudu, or go for A Wandle Wonder Wander, a mixed-reality river walk with a difference from XAP.
For theatre fans, the festival will offer a variety of new work including Leoni Amandin’s Happy Mortalday, a joyous performance lecture on celebrating death.
Furrow by Vocal Point, a outdoor play about forgiveness, reconciliation and the mistakes made by fathers and sons, created in lockdown by actual father and son, Abraham and Simon Parker will also be performed.
Gigs will resume at music venue The Magic Garden.
There will be shows from vocal adventurers The Beatbox Collective and Festival Friday, featuring digi-dub and reggae producer Mad Professor, surf rock trio Los Dedos, and vintage remix review show, Freakeasy.
Wandsworth Arts Fringe also presents streamed projects from many of Wandsworth’s disabled and disability-led artists and organisations.
Oily Cart’s Space to Be, a sensory show sent to homes through a series of packages, is created for and with disabled young people and their families, while The Baked Bean Company returns to WAF with a documentary exploring how people with learning disabilities have been impacted by Covid-19.
Representing youth talent, the 2021 festival features performances from London Children’s Ballet, the world’s most talented emerging artists and designers at the Royal College of Art’s graduate show, and more than 2,500 postcards created by Wandsworth’s children which capture their memories of 2020, displayed across Wandsworth libraries.
For the hands-on, there are loads of opportunities to get involved and learn new skills, with workshops from ballet to street dance, calligraphy to martial arts, circus to photography and much more.
For more information visit: https://www.wandsworthfringe.com/whats-on-2021
Main Pic: World Heart Beat Music Academy students