Organisers of a new Festival of Sound taking place in Ramsgate in July have released more details about what visitors can expect – including the take over of the town’s multi-storey car park.
The festival, first announced in May, is being produced by Ramsgate Arts ( Ramsgate Festival) in partnership with Ramsgate Week and Article 10, the team that created the popular Littoral Light Festival over the past two years. They will be working with a host of artists, musicians, performers and community groups in a variety of venues across the town.
There will be a series of open studios, talks and workshops during Ramsgate Week from July 21, running in tandem with the festival which ends on July 30.
Article 10 will be taking over and transforming Royal Harbour car park ( Leopold Street) with up to 30 sound installations from all over Kent. The installation is called Exit to Leopold Street.
Other installations will include the Sound of Wartime and Gagarin in the Ramsgate Tunnels, Filipe Gomes’ beautiful and moving installation in the steam tug St Cervia and the Requiem for Cross Bones sound installation by Emily Peasgood will be on loan from MERGE Bankside festival, in partnership with Tate Modern, Better Bankside, and Bankside Open Spaces Trust, in a first for Ramsgate.
There will be three music stages at the Italianate Greenhouse, the East Cliff bandstand and a main music stage at the harbour. The line up will be announced over the next few weeks.
A magical whispering forest at George VI Park will also feature.
Artists taking part in the festival have now been revealed and include sound artist Filipe Gomes; Emmy Award-winning musician and composer Michael J McEvoy; artist Gary Perkins; BAFTA-nominated composer, conductor, producer and musician Simon Boswell, award winning sound artist Emily Peasgood and musical director and consultant Gemma Dempsey.
Ramsgate Arts boss Suzy Humphries added: “When the festival first launched nine years ago, there wasn’t much going on culturally in Ramsgate but the town is undergoing something of a creative and cultural renaissance at the moment and in order to stay relevant we knew we had to shake things up a bit.”
Aidan Gray, from Article 10, said: “Anyone who’s been to a Ramsgate Festival before will know all about Article 10. Simultaneously inspired by, and limited by, time, tide and light, their concept called Littoral Light took the 2016 and 2017 Ramsgate Festivals by storm. Turning a tidal stretch of cliff-faced beach fleetingly into a gallery… and doing it at night just when low tide coincided with the setting of the sun, it was nothing short of a quiet revolution. ‘Poetic but bonkers’, was the affectionate phrase at the time.
“Sound art is a real growth area for the arts, and we have the opportunity here to establish our festival as one of the best in Europe. That’s our vision, and we’re really excited about how it’s shaping up.”
Keep up to date with festival announcements by following the hashtag #RFOS across social media, or by visiting the website: http://ramsgatefestival.org/
