World Class Circus And Street Art Performers Set To Liven Up Seaside Towns Around England

Year two of Arts Council England funded initiative seeking to boost local pride and increase visitor numbers in seaside resorts.

A top notch line-up of world-class circus and outdoor arts companies, from home and abroad, will be enthralling and entertaining mass audiences at 19 locations around the English coastline this year, thanks to the Coasters Touring Network.

Companies selected to be part of Coasters will be an essential part of free outdoor festivals and events taking place from Tyneside to Dorset, Blackpool to Margate and all points in between, including Freedom Festival in Hull, the 2017 UK City of Culture.

The season's programme kicks off at the end of June at the SO Festival in Lincolnshire and comes to a close in November at the magical Lightpool Festival in Blackpool.

Coasters is a national initiative that seeks to use the spectacle and colour of international circus and street arts to help regenerate England's traditional seaside resorts by increasing visitor numbers, thus boosting the local economies as well a s enhancing the sense of pride for residents of the participating towns.

Some of our traditional seaside towns are rated as amongst the most deprived in the country with high levels of unemployment. The Coasters project, led by SeaChange Arts in Great Yarmouth and funded by Arts Council England's Strategic Touring Fund, unites 12 partners ranging from local authorities to independent arts organisations. Sharing their resources and experience they have created a network that provides high quality cultural activity and entertainment around the English coastline.

Each of the partners already run successful events and festivals in their regions and Coasters enhances those events through the inclusion of jointly selected indoor and outdoor touring shows that are inspired by coastal locations and relevant to local audiences.

In 2016, the first year of the project, over 500,000 people enjoyed Coasters partner events with 96% of visitors rating the Coasters element as good or very good. At the Out There International Festival of Circus and Street Arts in Great Yarmouth an economic impact study showed that the festival directly contributed almost £1,200,000 to the local economy.

Joe Mackintosh, Director of SeaChange Arts said 'Circus and street performance are part of the heritage of English seaside holidaymaking. Coasters shows look to celebrate this but bring a contemporary perspective to it. Through performance and associated development projects in each location, we're seeking to change people's perceptions of culture on the coast, develop their arts infrastructure and build lasting relationships with partners and audiences.'

Amanda O'Reilly, Head of Culture, for Adur and Worthing Council added 'Being part of the Coasters network has enabled us to attract circus and street arts events which we would not have been able to bring to the town otherwise. The contacts we have gained are excellent and last year's Summer of Circus, which featured Coasters events, brought 33% new audiences and accompanying secondary spend to Worthing and the local area."

Amongst the ten Associate Companies' who will work with Coasters partners in 2017 are Newcastle based story-led hip hop dance theatre creators Southpaw Dance. Speak Easy, their recreation of the classic tale of Faust, features a fantastic 1920s themed set with breakdance and swing styles dancing. Dutch based Cirque du Platzak are an international cast of performers who mix folk music with traditional and innovative circus techniques in a style likened to the dark side of a Grimm's fairy tale. The associate artist roster also includes Acrojou, who use specially engineered physical structures and movement to tell eloquent non-verbal human stories, the high-flying Gorilla Circus, female French/English duo Spitz & Co, puppet maestros Pickled Image and Matthew Harrison's Actual Reality Arcade - a hands on interactive installation based on classic video games. There's the spectacular drum and light spectacles of World Beaters, and Ragroof Players 'Bridges Y Puentes' incorporates dance, spoken word, music and song from around the world to look at migration and the search for home.

Coasters has this year begun to support the development of new work, beginning with a pioneering collaboration between two of Europe's most in demand outdoor arts companies, the masterly percussive Worldbeaters from the north of England and Germany's Dundu who specialise in giant puppets. Together they are creating an ambitious night-time promenade spectacle for audiences of up to 5,000 that will tour to Coasters events and other festivals in the UK and beyond. Giant illuminated puppets will roam and interact with the audience, set to a dynamic and suitably loud musical soundscape inspired by Latin America and West Africa.

Hedley Swain, Area Director, South East, Arts Council England, said: "Coasters is an exciting project and we're really pleased that organisastions from all parts of England have chosen to be partners. Our seaside towns have a wonderful heritage as visitor destinations. Coasters' ground breaking new circus and street arts performances offer a wonderful way to reignite our passion for heading to these coastal towns. I look forward to it strengthening the local arts offer, whilst also creating a lasting legacy of increased visitor numbers."

The Coasters Network has its origins in the pioneering work of Seachange Arts in Great Yarmouth, an arts development organisation that uses circus and street arts as a tool to engage local, regional and national audiences in the resort, particularly through the Out There International Festival of Circus and Street Arts.

Coasters Events 2017

Worthing Theatres Summer of Circus June - August

So Festival Skegness and Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire June/July

Activate, Dorset Pommery Seafood Festival Weymouth July, Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival October

Dreamland Margate Events from July - September

Mouth of the Tyne Festival July

Hastings Borough Council St Leonards Festival, July and Hastings, Stade Saturdays June to October

Leftcoast Lightpool October - November

Freedom Festival Hull September

Seachange Arts Out There Festival Great Yarmouth September

Theatre Orchard Weston Super Mare Tropicana September - October

Coasters Partners

SeaChange Arts (Great Yarmouth) is an independent arts development charity based in Great Yarmouth but collaborating internationally. It is dedicated to delivering outstanding Circus and Street Arts events including the annual Out There Festival. http://seachangearts.org.uk

Activate, Dorset are leaders in outdoor and landscape art, producing, promoting and developing performing arts in Dorset with the belief that artists can affect and provide positive change in our communities. http://activateperformingarts.org.uk

Worthing Theatres is the Connaught Theatre, Studio and Cinema, Pavilion Theatre and Assembly Hall. The newly developed cultural programme has changed dramatically over the last two years and is now equal to the majority of regional or national competitors. Worthing Theatres works with renowned theatre makers, music promoters and producers throughout the UK and Europe and recently launched Summer of Circus the third largest contemporary circus festival within the UK, set to be repeated in 2017 and beyond. https://worthingtheatres.co.uk

Hastings Borough Council is a strong supporter of arts and culture with culture led regeneration as a key priority. It supports Stade Saturdays, a series of free performances on Hastings seafront throughout the summer, and St Leonards Festival, a two day celebration of culture and community which takes place every July. https://www.hastings.gov.uk

LeftCoast (Blackpool and Wyre) is a programme of arts and creative activity across Blackpool and Wyre. It produces amazing art - from jaw-dropping spectacles to intimate experiences to inspire and support those who live, work and study there. https://www.leftcoast.org.uk

Hull's Freedom Festival is the flagship arts event within the city's growing cultural landscape (Hull is UK City of Culture 2017). Now in its ninth year, Freedom Festival celebrates - through artistic and cultural expression - Hull's independent spirit and historic contribution to the cause of freedom as the birthplace of slave trade abolitionist William Wilberforce. http://www.freedomfestival.co.uk

Mouth of the Tyne Festival is a four day cultural celebration showcasing the award winning coastline. It features live music, free street entertainment, activities for under 5's and their parents and a colourful pageant. http://www.visitnorthtyneside.com/whats-on/mouth-of-the-tyne-festival

Theatre Orchard is an arts development charity that both produces and presents inspiring performance and creative opportunities in a diverse range of places and spaces in North Somerset ... and beyond. http://www.thetheatreorchard.org.uk/

SO Festival is an exciting and innovative outdoor arts festival that promotes and presents the best festival arts and entertainment across East Lincolnshire, ending with an explosive finale weekend in Skegness. http://www.sofestival.org/

Dreamland, Margate is a unique heritage amusement park at the heart of the Thanet tourism economy. It will continue to play a significant role in the regeneration of Margate. The vintage-style pleasure park has the UK's only Grade II listed roller coaster which, along with eighteen other stylishly restored rides, tells the story of rides through the decades. https://www.dreamland.co.uk

Newly formed East Suffolk Council, a merger of Suffolk Coastal and Waveney District Council, will be raising the economic and cultural profile of Lowestoft and Felixstowe by bringing Coasters supported world-class street theatre and circus to these towns. With the wealth of collective knowledge in coastal arts programming, the Coasters consortium looks forward to supporting East Suffolk's stride into cultural regeneration. http://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/

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