Peterborough’s Arts Fest 2013 drew to a close with many thousands of people enjoying the free performances and entertainment on offer.
This year’s Arts Fest was held on the embankment for the first time and it provided a perfect setting for the death defying performances and high flying acrobatics that formed the central theme of this year’s festival, aptly title ‘indulge the doolally’.
Crowds gathered to see the high impact, intricate and exciting performances from all the artists including Collectif Malunes with their energetic and hilarious story telling of modern love, the Mystererieuses Coiffurs and his amazing artistry styling festival-goer’s hair and the sensational La Rotative and their sometimes unbelievable acrobatic feats in the Wheel of Death, which many people watched through their hands as the performers stunned the audiences with their incredible routine 30 feet in the air.
The Saturday evening of the finale weekend saw over 5,000 people in the City Centre and on the embankment follow the spectacular Generik Vapeur and their show stopping, or more like city stopping performance. Beginning in Cathedral Square, the Peterborough Invasion lit up the city with pyrotechnics and organised chaos as the ‘blue men’, including four local volunteers told their story using the streets and landmarks of Peterborough as their stage.
People were swept up in the performance and followed it all the way through the city centre and onto the embankment where the performers ‘crashed’ a police car through a pyramid of barrels to bring the performance to an electrifying close. Chants of ‘one more song, one more song’ echoed around the riverside as thousands of people, still in shock and awe, raised the noise level to maximum as Generik Vapeur indulged the crowd with another song and dance.
Festival manager Lisa Helin told ESP – “So many people have taken the time to let us know how much they enjoyed the festival and encourage us to do something next year that matches this year’s spectacular. It really was an ‘I was there’ moment and I already have an idea for next year.
“This year’s Arts Fest brought together some of the very best performers from Europe as part of Vivacity’s involvement with the Zepa2 project and this is set to continue next year.
“Curiosity was peaked, pulses were set racing and interest in the arts reached a new level over the finale weekend and we hope that the enthusiasm for the Arts will carry on from this and go from strength to strength.
“Next year’s festival is already in the planning and if this year was anything to go by, you will not want to miss next year.”
The ESP team were there with Chris Brudenell capturing the action and and video reporter Lorenzo Monteforte filming the finale events…
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