Norfolk and Norwich Festival

The Norfolk and Norwich Festival consists of a range of events suitable for a variety of ages across sites in Norwich and Norfolk.

Events include circus, classical and contemporary music, dance, family, outdoor, theatre, visual art and the spiegel tent.

Past family events have consisted of the Baby Rave and the alternative carousel, and an interactive art piece.

This year’s Festival sees more originally commissioned work than ever before. Our theatre highlight is Wolf’s Child: a dark fairy tale set in the woods at Felbrigg Hall created by one of the world’s leading site specific theatremakers WildWorks. The site specific theme continues with the latest creation from The Voice Project:The Observatory takes us on a cosmic choral journey around the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and UEA Broad. And we continue our unique relationship with Circa with the World Premiere ofWhat Will Have Been, a show created especially for The Adnams Spiegeltent.

In the Festival’s opening three days you can explore three pieces from international artists: fitting sees dancers and acrobats defy gravity in the street, Dedriving Code For Beginners takes the concept of art in public space to absurd extremes and you can experience virtual reality through C.a.p.e. (Computer Automatic Personal Environment). 451 our fantastic large-scale finale this year, brings science fiction outdoors with a Festival co-commission of Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451.

In our classical music programme The Mendelssohn Project explores the musical genius of Felix Mendelssohn. You can enjoy a performance of Elijah with Sir John Tomlinson and the Festival Chorus, a symphonic programme from the Philharmonia and a series of three concerts from Northern Chords which mine the riches of Mendelssohn’s chamber works.

Contemporary music sees a brace of extraordinary jazz pianists:Abdullah Ibrahim, the Neil Cowley Trio and ECM artist Stefano Bollani. Some extraordinary feel-good gigs for all the family include The Hot Sardines and Taraf de Haïdouks at Norwich Theatre Royal. And don’t miss everything from African blues to contemporary British folk to choral house music at The Adnams Spiegeltent Music Club.

Visual arts and film bring some real delights this year, with the much anticipated Jeff Koons show at Norwich Castle Museum. We have some great film treats too: from the intimate sharing of one Polish woman’s home movies, Margarete, to the film and music celebration inspired by the Guinness Book of Records – The Measure of All Things.

As the reputation of Norwich as a UNESCO City of Literature continues to grow Writers’ Centre Norwich presents a weekend-long Literary Festival which includes Neel Mukherjee, Rose Tremain, Andrew O’Hagan and Russian journalist/activist Masha Gessen. We also have the UK premiere of the theatre production of Eimear McBride’s award-winning novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing.

All this plus much more for audiences of all ages with events in Norwich and across the county.

www.nnfestival.org.uk