Fuse Medway Festival 2010

Fuse Medway Festival is a FREE event which will take place over two weeks from Saturday 12th to Saturday 26th June. With events happening throughout Medway (Chatham, Gillingham, Strood, Rainham and Rochester).

Fuse Medway Festival brings the very best artists together with hundreds of its audiences, taking the colourful and unusual onto the streets and into unexpected spaces – streets, cafés, parks and local attractions. The festival includes family, music, dance, street art, visual art, spectaculars, etc.

Fuse Medway Festival will be a free celebration of arts that is different, diverse and daring. They aim to showcase some of the best emerging and established performers from across Medway and Europe. They are also working with hundreds of local residents from many community groups.

Line-up

The Big Tea Party - Sat 12 June - 1 to 6pm. Chatham Riverside, library and High Street. Acts will perform regularly throughout the afternoon. Chatham's urban village green offers an afternoon of hands-on fun, frolics and entertainment for all the family including Street performers intent on amazing and amusing, Arts and crafts workshops, storytelling at the Teddy Bears' Picnic, an exciting relay with Sparky, the Imagination our Nation puppet, WI tea tent, preview of play The Doctor's Daughter.

Everything Looks Beautiful in Slow Motion - 12-26 June, Strood High Street Captivating video installation by Nic Sandiland. An everyday scene on Strood High Street will be filmed for 10 seconds; the footage will then be projected on to a prominent shop window, in monochrome, slow-frame beauty.

The Iron Gym - 12-26 June and throughout July and arts-based exercise trail, linking the universities at Medway Campus with the local community, leaving a lasting legacy to the 2012 Olympics. University students will exhibit 2D and 3D concepts that combine local place and history with the Olympics.

Fabio Paolizzo presents Velodrone - Rochester Castle Gardens - Sunday, 13 June 4-6pm - A unique performance event that needs pedal power! Bring your bike and join in on a cycle around the gardens. The movement will create music. At the same time, the actions of professional cyclists at Deangate Ridge will generate sounds which will then be added to the mix. No bike? No problem, simply turn up with a picnic, relax and listen as the concert unfolds.

Cornfield, presented by Matt Ashdown and Lucy Noakes – Open viewing: Sat 19 June, 12noon-4pm, Hundred of Hoo School, Rainham. Cornfield is a walkthrough exhibition that will plant the topic of local agriculture back where it belongs, in the foreground. The visual feast, created by Matt, Lucy and pupils from the area, will take place in the school environment, accompanied by insights into the reality of farming life.

Moogie Wonderland - Los Amigos Bar - Saturday, 19 June 9pm to 2am. A moogie wonderland is an absurd alternative view of the world realised through the visual arts and often accompanied by twittering sounds. Moogie Wonderland have been running their DIY-style arts-based club nights for over three years. This event will be themed around factory and focus on performance art via projections while luminous bear headed DJs play their usual mix of 60s psych, French pop, Japanese pop and indiepop. There will be free cakes while stocks last.

Periplum presents 1000 Revolutions Per Moment - live on the streets of Gillingham - Friday, 18 and Saturday, 19 June 7 to 8.30pm and 9.30 to 11pm. Take a journey into the musical vaults of your mind and through the streets and venues of Gillingham. Discover a world that is shaped by where you wander and by the music that has changed your life. This stunning piece of theatre needs you, the audience, to bring it to life. Email 1000revolutions@googlemail.com to sign up for one of the performances and be prepared to bare your musical soul. 1000 Revolutions Per Moment has been created specifically for Gillingham, celebrating its people and places and to find out what lies at its heart.

High Jinx on the streets of Medway - Saturday 19 June, Gillingham High Street 12 noon – 4pm Includes Bang On!, CinecabaGoGo, Imagination Our Nation, Musical Ruth, Bureau of Silly Ideas - Meet Gladys, Close Act, Dizzy O’Dare presents The Tiny Travelling Tightwire Show.

Sparkle - Strood Waterfront play area, Canal Street, Sat 12, Sat 19 and Sat 26 June, 12noon to 4pm - Artists from Hidden Door The magical and fun kaleidoscopic art installation will transform the amphitheatre into a theatrical backdrop and on Saturdays there will be free performances and activities, including a drop-in art workshop.

A fiery Fuse finale – 10.30 to 11pm. Medway is named after its winding and wending focal point, the River Medway, a fitting location for the festival’s stunning finale. The performance will be a sky-bound, explosive spectacular, with the deck of LV21, a 40 metre steel-hulled lightship, at its heart. A unique commission for Fuse and promises to be a dramatic end to the festival, packed with aerial daredevilry and pyrotechnic eruptions aboard the imposing figure of LV21.

Children's events

There's a wealth of children's events including workshops and storytelling – all free - please check all dates, times and locations by visiting the website, see link at the bottom of this listing.

Theatre

There's a host of free theatre events including London's Central School of Speech and Drama presents The Doctor's Daughter, Adventures in Wonderland presented by the Brook Youth Theatre, and more.

Dance

Dance events include an evening riverside romp - at Rochester Riverside , Saturday, 26 June. Includes: The Living Room, 8 to 9pm from Yael Flexer & Nic Sandiland - Dance and Digital Works. Dancing in the Street on Rochester High Street and surrounding areas, Sat 26 June with free performances and workshops from the likes of Kompany Malakhi, Mimbre, Pagrav Dance Company, The Floor Crusaders, Loop Dance Company, Tempered Body Dance Company, Visual Hijack, and The People's Stage where local community groups and performers take to The stage to showcase their burgeoning skills. Performers include Anaconda Belly Dance, Dance Alley, 2GC, Jade Williams and Scamps Dance Troupe. There's a host of other dance events also on the programme.

Accommodation

This event does not have camping but there are a number of hotels, hostels and guest houses in the area.

More info

For more information see the Medway Fuse Festival Website.

More information will be here when available.

Latest Updates