September is one of my favourite times of the year. Many of you will have just survived the school holidays; the first few days of September marking a frantic race to get all manner of back-to-school paraphernalia sorted in an ever shrinking window of time.
Antidote to the stress? Get down to Wysing Arts’ festival Space Time: The Multiverse on the 5th, exploring themes of altered states and multiple identities (which most parents can probably relate to!). I loved their festival last summer; my then two-year old interrupted a punky, energetic Dada-esque performance, which was as baffling as it was inspiring to most of the adults squeezed into the room, with a comically timed: ‘what are you doing?’ The crowd and the artist both burst out laughing.
There’s also the chance to see Razorlight at Lodestar festival, which goes from strength to strength each year. Held just outside the city, it’s this weekend (4-6 September, www.lodestarfestival.com). Because I fell in love with my husband to Razorlight, this poses a bit of a dilemma – as in addition to these two festivals, also happening this weekend is Cambridge’s first ever Baby Rave at Cambridge Junction. The team behind Baby Rave has held them in Camden already and now it’s our turn to enjoy one of the first ever electronica events for parents. A rave? For babies? I hear you cry. Yep, really and for parents, too.
Dance to decent tunes, admire the colourful lights and just generally chill out, recapturing those summer festival vibes. Cambridge Art Salon will also be there, helping to make art for our new programme, Eastside Creates, as part of the Romsey Art Festival that starts this month. The third year we’ve run the festival, it’s evolving into Eastside Creates, a programme that spans the whole of East Cambridge.
Watch out for a treasure hunt fusing local history for kids, part of a public art project, from artist Zoë Chamberlain in the Barnwell Road area; a design exhibition at Espresso Library; the launch of a new regular night from SHINDIG; contemporary art exploring community from artist Daisy Zoll; exhibitions, installations and performances – from poetry popping up in wine shops and a food/art event with FoodCycle to a fashion show against body fascism.
Sofar Sounds, that launched through the festival last year, are also back with two secret gigs in East Cambridge, for your chance to hear fabulous music in quirky, secret locations. Check www.romseyartfestival.org.uk for the full programme and sign up for Sofar Sounds’ secret gigs at www.facebook.com/SofarSoundCambridge. I’m off to the mountains of France to work on my novel this month.
I’ve been glued to the dazzling work of Cambridge author Ali Smith all summer long, plus dreaming of taking off in the manner of Esther Freud’s Hideous Kinky, which I’ve also been hoovering up in between satisfying my toddler’s every demand for bits of cardboard/handmade aeroplanes/dragons. So these ten days of bliss at La Muse in the Midi-Pyrénées will be the fulfilment of a long-awaited form of heaven.
But if it’s a hankering for a dance under the open sky, rave culture, horses or, um, car parks you have, then go check out a ‘communal animation of urban spaces’ on top of a car park roof on the 10th. Yes, you read that right. Cambridge Junction’s Daniel Pitt, arts programmer extraordinaire, has hit the ball out of the park with this one. It looks like a really quite brilliant piece from Still House, the company of choreographer and former Hills Roader Dan Canham.
Of Riders And Running Horses is staged on top of Cambridge Leisure Centre’s car park. Dance in the face of yet another summer ending with this performance, which fuses Scottish dancing, American jive and Balinese shamans, and promises to have the whole audience raving under the stars. On a rooftop. Right here, in Cambridge. Fabulous. No need to organise that illegal rave in Burwell after all now.
