Midsummer Festival, 20 June.

Written By Emmie
We all know we're itching to get back to "normality" and enjoy all of the things we took for granted before. The West Midlands Culture Response Unit (WMCRU) have been working behind the scenes to develop a response to the virus from over 100 arts organisations in the West Midlands to the Covid-19 crisis in the short, medium and long term for the industry.

Midsummer Festival is going to be a free one-day festival celebrating the arts and culture from the West Midlands on Saturday 20th June. On the day, West Midlands theatre, dance, music, artists and venues will mark the Summer Solstice with a wide range of live, archived and pre-recorded activity for you to enjoy. The festival will also provide some never seen before stuff from companies like the Royal Shakespeare Company, ACE Dance and Music and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. 


The festival, inspired by the annual Midsummer celebrations across the region, the day will feature work influenced by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and will respond more generally to nature with open air events in a wide variety of settings across the city. This will include a live performance of short excerpts at Compton Verney, which was the setting for the 1968 film adaptation starring Dames Judi Dench and Helen Mirren. 

Some of the performances you can look forward to being streamed throughout the day include;
  • WILD from daring dance-circus production from Motionhouse
  • A series of Rural Recordings from Pentabus Theatre including Here I Belong by Matt Hartley and Crossings by Deirdre Kinahan. 
  • Rosie Kay will deliver a poem of dance CITY-BREATH-WATER, a response to the beauty and harshness of the city of Birmingham.
  • The award-winning dance and music company Sonia Sabri Company will showcase some of the best highlights of their performances. 
  • Royal Shakespeare Company will provide a workshop on how to create your own fairy bower at home inspired by the wonderous woodland bed of Titania, queen of the fairies. 
  • The day will end with a celebration at the Midsummer Vogue Closing Party hosted by DanceXchange Vogue Tutor Jason Andrew Guest. 
To experience the Midsummer Festival on Saturday 20th June, you can access it through http://www.makeitwm.com/






Emmie
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