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Amelie Lindsey-Behrens, aged four, taking part in the Bloomsbury Festival
Picture by Elena Heatherwick |
Music and fun take to the streets
MOST two-year-olds struggle with the laws of physics but the Bloomsbury Festival was already standing tall, even spectacularly defying gravity, when it celebrated its second birthday last weekend.
More than 15,000 revellers turned out to watch fearless dancers dangle from the eighth storey of the Brunswick Centre, the tombstones came alive in St George’s Gardens and even to build a school from a flat pack.
The streets of Bloomsbury were transformed for the two and a half day festival as bands and street performers took over the streets on Friday afternoon.
Light Touch – an aerial performance on the Brunswick Centre by theatre company Scarabeus and SnakeOil – pulled in huge crowds while Brunswick Square was packed for performances by musicians Paloma Faith and Norwegian Hanne Hukkelburg.
Open air salsa lessons and impromptu dances erupted in squares and historic side streets and a 600-strong sing-along Messiah was conducted on the very site where Handel himself had conducted it centuries earlier.
Other events out of the 150 on offer included an informal gig in the candle-lit Perseverance pub in Lamb’s Conduit Street, an art gallery in a caravan, a lantern-lit parade by children from local primary schools.
Festival director, Roma Backhouse, said: “I’m already looking forward to next year and we’ve got loads of ideas about how to make it even bigger and better.
“But I think I’m going to have a few days off first!” |
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