As well as Superact organising the largest closing event of the London 2012 Festival, we are there at the start of the London 2012 celebrations too!

 

We are proud and delighted to have been invited to organise the music for the Taunton Torch Relay on Monday 21st May!  Two venues, North Street and Goodlands Gardens, will be showcasing diverse talent from Taunton and surrounding areas from 12.00pm - 6.00pm with something to suit everyone’s musical taste.

Lucy Hather, Superact’s Junior Project Manager, is very excited about the event: ” We have managed to stage such varied sets at both venues!  Genres include world music, barbershop choir, folk, jazz, samba, ska and 1940s swing. And the groups & musicians performing are well known to local schools and community groups.  We hope as many people as possible will come along to support their local music scene and artists.”

 

 

 

Here is a full programme for both venues:

North Street

12.00pm     Julie-Anne Murphy
12.30pm     TBC
1.10pm       The Ombiviolum Orkestra
1.50pm       Elmwood School
2.30pm       The York Trio
3.00pm       Ben Huws
4.00pm       Miranda Sykes
5.00pm       Emily Wright & The Royals

Goodlands Gardens

12.00pm     Shoot The Moon
12.30pm     Jamma de Samba
1.30pm       Ryan Hawkings
2.00pm       Hatty and Oz
3.00pm       TBC
3.30pm       John Peace
4.00pm       Children of the Deane Choir
4.30pm       Castle Girl’s Barbershop
5.00pm       Morning Rush

For more details, call Lucy on 01823 666641.

All of us here at Team Superact were extremely excited to hear Chris Evans feature the Bandstand Marathon on his BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Wednesday 2nd May. He was really enthusistic about the national bandstand day and gave lots of support to the event!

 

From left to right, Liz Gordon (PR Lead), Angie Belcher (EP Lead), Katharine Lane (Project Manager), Rachael Grant (Administrator) and Tracy Hill (Local Authority Lead)

 

 

 "We are very excited that Bandstand Marathon will give the opportunity for bands and groups to play live in their local areas to let everyone see how much talent there is out there in the UK – we hope loads of musicians get involved and good luck to everyone taking part!”

Bellowhead

 

 

 

Here is the full Media Release issued to launch the London 2012 Festival and it mentions Bandstand Marathon!  What a fantastic line up of events - we are in esteemed company indeed.

 

26 April 2012

 
Media Release
 
Full programme announced for the London 2012 Festival
•    12,000 events & performances featuring over 25,000 artists from all 204 participating Olympic nations
 
•    Stars include Damon Albarn, Alan Ayckbourn, Daniel Barenboim, Cate Blanchett, Gustavo Dudamel, Tracey Emin, Stephen Fry, Gilberto Gil, Handspring, Antony Hegarty, Damien Hirst, Zakir Hussain, Anish Kapoor, Mike Leigh, Baaba Maal, Wynton Marsalis, Tim Minchin, The Noisettes, Yoko Ono, Simon Rattle, Rihanna, Scissor Sisters, Wallace and Gromit, Dr Who, Julie Walters, Ai Wei Wei, Jay-Z
 
The full programme was announced today for the London 2012 Festival, celebrating the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will take place from 21 June – 9 September 2012 and feature leading artists from around the world.
 
This ‘once in a lifetime’ Festival features more than 25,000 artists from all 204 competing Olympic nations. Everyone will be able to join in the celebration with over 10 million free tickets and opportunities to take part in 12,000 events and performances at 900 venues all over the UK, including 130 world premieres and 85 UK premieres.
 
The full London 2012 Festival brochure will be distributed around the UK and is available to download from the London 2012 Festival website at www.london2012.com/festival.
 
Over 160,000 free tickets are available for concerts in six Thames-side locations for BT River of Music: Scissor Sisters, Baaba Maal, The Noisettes, Matthew Herbert, Mariza and Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra featuring Wynton Marsalis are among the line-up already announced. The public can register from Tuesday 15 May and sign up to be the first to hear when tickets for each stage become available via Ticketmaster. Full details of the programme and venues can be found at www.btriverofmusic.com.

100,000 music fans are expected for BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend starring Jay-Z, Rihanna, Florence + The Machine, will.i.am, Jessie J, Jack White, David Guetta and Tinie Tempah.  Peace One Day’s Global Truce Countdown concert at Ebrington Square in Derry-Londonderry for the opening night of the London 2012 Festival will feature stars including Imelda May, Newton Faulkner, Guillemots and Wonder Villains.  

Also going on sale today are tickets to Traction, a one-day festival curated by Radio 1 DJ Gilles Peterson and presented by Eurostar, featuring music and performance collaborations from across Europe. Mercury prize nominee Ghostpoet is joined by London artist Plugs at this unique event at Granary Square in London, which opens to the public for the first time in June. Tickets are available for £20 via www.eurostartraction.com or www.ticketmaster.co.uk.

Stephen Fry, Tim Minchin, Scott Mills and a host of BBC Comedy stars will celebrate the UK’s comic talent with appearances all over the country from Edinburgh’s celebrated Fringe venue The Pleasance to The Eden Project in Cornwall, Hackney Empire, the BFI and London’s West End.
 
Stephen Fry said: ‘The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be an astonishing event, and it’s only right that we use the opportunity to showcase our world leading arts and culture when the eyes of the world are on us. The London 2012 Festival will give everyone the chance to have an Olympic experience, and leading the way will be the Playing the Games programme taking place at the Criterion Theatre, London’s most beautiful West End theatre.’
 
London will celebrate its contribution to fashion with a series of collaborations between top designers and artists. Among these are Paul Smith, Giles Deacon, Hussein Chalayan, Matthew Williamson, Stephen Jones, Mary Katrantzou and artists Cerith Wyn Evans, Gavin Turk, Jeremy Deller, Mark Tichner, Charming Baker and Jess Flood-Paddocks.
 
Stonehenge will be transformed in a once-in-a-lifetime free fiery spectacular created by French outdoor wizards, Compagnie Carabosse, while Jeremy Deller’s full size ‘bouncy castle’ version of Stonehenge will tour the nation, giving families a unique experience of this historic landmark.
 
There will be more art in unusual places with artist Richard Wilson’s full-scale replica coach dangling off the roof of the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill recreating the final scene of The Italian Job; a collection of BMW cars with bodywork designed by artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons goes on show in a secret London location; and more than 500 bandstands and outdoor performance spaces across the UK will simultaneously come alive with music as part of Bandstand Marathon.

Constanza Macras’ extraordinary dance theatre group will perform in the forests of North Wales with ancient Mabinogion myths interpreted through the prism of modern Cardiff nightlife; and Elizabeth Streb’s daredevil troupe interacts with London’s most iconic landmarks through her unique extreme action performance.

Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaker will present one of her great early works, Fase, reworked for Tate Modern’s brand new Tanks spaces; and Michael Clark will create a new work for Glasgow’s legendary Barrowland Ballroom.   

‘See No Evil’, Europe’s biggest urban arts festival featuring world class street art, cutting edge music and 3D mapping projections will pop-up in the heart of Bristol’s Enterprise Zone. Major music acts include Adrian Utley of Portishead working with AntiVJ, while Bristol artists Inkie, China Mike, Jody Thomas and international artists bring their distinctive visuals to the streets of Bristol.   
 
Busk on the Usk is a new free festival for Newport City in Wales, featuring live music, literature, spoken-word, and street theatre as well as art and food events at The Riverfront Theatre, University of Wales, Newport and pop-up venues across the city. The event will be produced by Wales’ award-winning independent Green Man music and arts festival, and the incredible Scritti Politti, led by Newport born Green Gartside who will be making his first ever performance there.

As part of the BBC Proms 2012, Daniel Barenboim will conduct the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in a complete Beethoven symphony cycle culminating on 27 July, the opening night of the Games, with a performance of Beethoven 9. Oscar-winners Wallace & Gromit will make their Proms debut with Wallace’s Proms commission ‘My Concerto in Ee, Lad’; and Birmingham Opera will stage the world premiere of Stockhausen’s extraordinary work Mittwoch aus Licht, a five-hour long sonic extravaganza featuring a Helicopter String Quartet, choirs and electronics, with Radio 1’s DJ Nihal as moderator.
 
London’s newest landmark designed by internationally acclaimed artist Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, the 115 ft high The Orbit, will be launched in May; Yoko Ono’s Smile project, presented by the Serpentine Gallery, invites everyone to upload and send an image of their smiles, to create a global anthology of portraits, alongside a major exhibition of her work in the Gallery; Antony Gormley’s Godot Tree, a new commission for the Enniskillen Festival, will go on show in the Grand Yard at Castle Coole; and the UK’s biggest ever celebration of dance includes an anthology of works by Tanztheater Wupperthal - Pina Bausch commissioned by the cities she visited.

There are also lots of opportunities for the public to get involved in the Festival and participate directly in nationwide initiatives like Big Dance 2012, which includes a world record for the largest Bollywood dance performance at Cardiff Mela, an amazingly long Norfolk Long Dance in Norwich, and an open-air showcase of community dance skills at Big T Dance in Doncaster city centre.
 
Hofesh Shechter directs Youth Dance England’s U.Dance Ensemble, the first UK youth dance company, performing at the U.Dance 2012 festival at Southbank Centre 13-15 July; and on 14 July, the entire population are invited to fill streets and public spaces in Big Street Dance Day, under the Creative Direction of Wayne McGregor, just one of the hundreds of Big Dance events all over the country.

Storylab is a nationwide programme of events encouraging kids to get reading and creating stories during the holidays. Libraries will be hosting lots of special events for the Summer Reading Challenge, and there are innovative projects from Discover Centre’s Storycloud, the new Story Museum in Oxford, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the National Theatre’s Pop-Up Workshop programme and the British Library, who are hosting a festival of Children’s Literature as part of their Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands. Major writers taking part include Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo, Richard Adams, Michael Rosen, Malorie Blackman and Andy Stanton.

London 2012 Festival will be launched on Midsummer’s Night 21 June, with a burst of celebration across the nation starting with a spectacular open-air concert set against the backdrop of Stirling Castle in Scotland, featuring superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela who are joined

The official London 2012 Festival programme is launched today which includes 12,000 events & over 25,000 artists from all 204 participating Olympic nations.  Superact and Bandstand Marathon are very proud to be part of such a prestigious and unique celebration of arts and culture in UK, in partnership with Making Music and supported by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

To download a copy of the brochure, (Bandstand Marathon is on page 63!) click here: http://festival.london2012.com/brochure/2012festivalguide.pdf

 

 

 

 

ERIC PICKLES - LAUNCH OF NATIONWIDE COMMUNITY MUSIC DAY

Eric Pickles has called on local bands to take part in ‘Bandstand Marathon -Communities in Tune’, a nationwide  music day which aims to encourage 500 areas across the country to come together and celebrate the final day of the Paralympic Games on 9 September through a range of free  live performances.
The Communities and Local Government Secretary joined three different performers, including, the Brentwood Royal Legion Youth Band in Colchester on Friday to highlight the initiative and give his personal backing to the planned ‘Bandstand Marathon’.
The day will showcase as much live performance from as many cultures and communities as possible and events will take place across a wide range of outdoor performance spaces. This could include anything from a steel drum band playing in an historic bandstand in a local park, a piano recital in a shopping centre or a choral choir in a public garden, Mr Pickles made clear.

As highlighted in the Government's recent 'Creating the conditions for integration' paper, the Government is strongly supporting people to play an active part in society, to focus on what they have in common rather than their differences and celebrate what is good about their local area.

Under the theme ‘Communities in Tune’, the Government is teaming up with organisers Superact and Making Music, providing them with funding  to expand and enhance their existing annual Bandstand Marathon day, doubling the length of the local events to four hours, and increasing the number of events from 100 venues last year to a predicted 500 this year.

Speaking at the national launch at Colchester Castle Park, Essex, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said:

"2012 is a great year for the country, with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic and Paralympic Games there is no better time for communities to come together and celebrate. Bandstand Marathon  will be a fantastic afternoon of free live entertainment, getting people enthused about a wide range of music and a great opportunity for everyone to celebrate what is good about their local area. The day is also a terrific opportunity to champion our local Bandstands which are very much a part of our cultural heritage and help bring them back to life.  "

Superact Director, Nick Smith said:
'We are delighted to have received DCLG support for the Bandstand Marathon in 2012 as it has enabled us to massively expand the event in this Olympic year.  Thanks to DCLG, 2012 will see the 500 events across the UK on 9th September doubled in length from two to four hours and also enables us, in partnership with Making Music, to train local organisers in planning and delivering the events, adding to the community's ability to come together around a shared love of music. "

Bandstand Marathon is part of the London 2012 Festival, a spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration from 21 June and running until 9 September 2012 bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK. 

 

 

Picture left to right: Katharine Lane, Superact Associate Director; Robin Osterley, Chief Executive, Making Music; Nick Smith, Superact Director; Cllr Mike Hogg, Mayor’s Escort; Sir Bob Russell, MP for Colchester; The Mayor of Colchester, Cllr Helen Chuah; The RT Hon Eric Pickles MP; Cllr Jeremy Lucas, Cabinet Member for Environment and Culture, Essex County Council

The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government joined local dignatories, teams from Superact, Making Music and Essex County Council, and visitors to Castle Park, Colchester for the official launch of the 2012 Bandstand Marathon!
 
In glorious sunshine on Good Friday, the Minister joined DrumKulture on African drums and watched a magnificent performance on the Bandstand by Brentwood Royal British Legion Youth Band, who are from his home constituency.  The event was closed with a stunning acoustic performance by Georgia Strand, Folk Musician of the Year in 2011, who will be playing the Cambridge Folk Festival in August.

Nick Smith explains why the support of the Minister and his Department is so important for the Bandstand Marathon: "We are delighted to have received DCLG support for the Bandstand Marathon in 2012 as it has enabled us to massively expand the event in this Olympic year.  Thanks to DCLG, 2012 will see the 500 events across the UK on 9th September doubled in length from two to four hours and also enables us, in partnership with Making Music, to train local organisers in planning and delivering the events, adding to the community’s ability to come together around a shared love of music.”

Superact are delighted to announce that the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, Eric Pickles, will be officially launching this years Bandstand Marathon on Friday 6th April at 12.30pm at Castle Park, Colchester.

 

The event, featuring local musicians, will run from 12.00pm - 2.00pm and everyone is welcome.  African drummers, Drum Kulture, will kick off proceedings with audience participation positively encouraged!  Brentwood Royal Legion Youth Band will entertain visitors with a medley of music followed by an acoustic guitar performance by Georgia Strand, a young singer/songwriter who has been signed up for Cambridge Folk Festival this year.

 

We are so excited that this programme reflects perfectly what Bandstand Marathon is about - music of all genres playing in their own community. More news soon.....!

 

Picture of Castle Park Bandstand, Colchester courtesy of Visit Colchester website www.visitcolchester.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bandstand Marathon took place on Sunday 25th September with over 100 bands, choirs and ensembles participating. Rain caused a few problems for some people at the start of the day, but the sun came out and the bands played in bandstands across the UK. Many thanks to all the bands that took part and to the many people who made the event possible.

If you took part in an event or visited a performance please send us your pictures and comments. Send them to katharine@superact.org.uk and follow the comments on Facebook and Twitter.

If you are a band interested in participating on the 9th September 2012, please complete and return the Register of Interest Form. You can also find more information on the event in the document Information for Participating Bands.

Superact will be initiating contact with Local Authorities and partners across the UK during December, but for more information please email contact@superact.org.uk. 

The Bandstand Marathon has been granted the Inspire mark by the London 2012 Inspire programme for the fourth year in a row! 

The London 2012 Inspire programme recognises innovative and exceptional projects that are directly inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Musical performances in bandstands and other open public spaces will be held across the UK on Sunday 9th September 2012 as part of the London 2012 Festival and the Cultural Olympiad. The project is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people. 

Seb Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games said: "Bandstand Marathon is encouraging local music groups to fulfil their potential. I am proud that with the help of partners such as Superact we are delivering our vision to use the power of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to boost participation in creating a cultural legacy post-London 2012." 

Ali Smith, Superact Director, explains: "The Bandstand Marathon started life in 2008 with the aim of enlivening public spaces and celebrating the nations much loved bandstands. With an estimated 150 venues taking part this year we are hoping to provide performance opportunities for over 3,000 musicians across the UK. This is Superact's largest UK project and we are very proud to have been awarded the London 2012 Inspire mark."

Superact is pleased to announce that the Bandstand Marathon will be taking place throughout parks and town centres in the UK on Sunday 9th September 2012.

As part of the Cultural Olympiad the Bandstand Marathon aims to enliven public spaces by having as many bands performing on as many bandstands and outdoor performances spaces all at the same time on the same day throughout the UK.

The event, now in its 5th year celebrates local amateur musical talent; reflecting the amateur athletes who will be participating in the 2012 Games.

It also makes use of the many historic bandstands that adorn our local parks and town centres; many of which are underused or never used at all and we hope to revitalise and reinvigorate them. The music played by the bands cross many genres, from current popular music, rock classics, music from films and shows, jazz and swing, as well as more traditional tunes.

We aim to have over 500 performances on the 9th September 2012.

Superact are pleased to be working in partnership in with Making Music. Making Music is the largest umbrella arts organisation for amateur and voluntary music in the UK with nearly 3,000 member groups, representing over 250,000 amateur musicians.

It has been the voice of voluntary music since 1935. Making Music exists to support and champion amateur and voluntary music of all genres throughout the UK. Its members include symphony orchestras, jazz bands, samba groups, choirs, handbell ringers, folk festivals, music clubs, and more.

"We're delighted to be involved in the Bandstand Marathon. It is a wonderful idea to help reclaim public spaces, and will inspire more people to perform music together and support their local groups."