Bloomsburu Radio talk to Yanaelle Thiran and Owen Ho about Garden Unlocked. 

Garden Unlocked a dance piece that takes place outdoors amidst the bustling surroundings of Bloomsbury. It invites audiences to stop for moment and rethink our relationships to the air and spaces around us.

The delicate, poetic dance movements are shaped by the air we breathe and spaces we live. The music in turn encourages great freedom and spontaneity in response to the dance in real time – a curious combination of site dance, aleatoric music, and cross-disciplinary experiment that defies categorisation.

Most importantly, forget about any concert etiquette. Visitors are move around or sit wherever you want as the dance unfolds. In a world where pollution and respiratory problems are pressing concerns, what can we do?

For more details, please see: https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/events/garden-unlocked/

Bloomsbury Radio chat to Holy Elson about Stories of Song, Conway Hall. For more details, please see: https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on/event/stories-of-song/

Bloomsbury Radio chat to Giuseppe Urso about 'A Lump in the Throat', an audio installation by GM Urso, which aims to create an intimate space inside St George’s Bloomsbury where visitors can wander, pause, and listen. From the distance only the instrumental version of Gluck’s Che farò senza Euridice? (What is life to me without thee?) can be heard but coming closer it is possible to make out a voice singing in English. It is Orfeo, crying in desperation at Euridice’s death. Gradually another language emerges, and then another, to emphasize the global proportion of the pandemic that has struck the world. For more details, please see: https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/events/a-lump-in-the-throat/

Broadcaster John Offord talks to two of the three winners of the Bloomsbury Festival Art Competition 2022 (Jan Pimblett, Glenda Frieder & Emma Todd) on Bloomsbury Radio at a private view of their exhibition at Spaghetti House gallery. The exhibition is free and open daily until 23 October. More info: https://bit.ly/3D2SqyA

Bloomsbury Radio talk to Chris Foster who is running a ninety minute guided walk from Camden Tour Guides Association, where you can explore some of Bloomsbury’s best open spaces, and discover the people who may or may not have been involved in their creation. Plus a few stories and personal memories from a Bobby on the Beat in this area fifty years ago. For more details, please see: https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/events/bloomsburys-best-open-spaces-route-1/

Bloomsbury Radio talk to Katherine Edwards and Rohan Gotobed about a new audio play which was selected for development as part of the Bloomsbury Festival 2021 New Wave Theatre Writing programme. 

Umbrella explores the lived experience of Gran, who is experiencing dementia, and the people around her.

To find out more about the upcoming live preview, please see: https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/events/umbrella-katherine-edwards/

Nick Potter, Partner and Head of the Commercial Property at Bishop and Sewell chats about the Bloomsbury Festival and their co-sponsors of the launch event.

Reporter, John Offord chats to Eva Driskel from St George’s Bloomsbury about the Silent Calligraphy workshop which ran on Day 2 of the Bloomsbury Festival. 

Professional and amateur calligraphers from the South London Lettering Association practised their art using a wide variety of scripts and tools. They sat at tables in the body of the beautiful Hawksmoor church of St George’s Bloomsbury with quiet music in the background. For more details, please see: https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/events/silent-calligraphy/

A chance to listen to all 26 Orphan pieces, which are read one after another. 

26 Orphans is an exhibition of writing about fictional characters, whose stories involve being abandoned early in life, orphaned or fostered. It’s a familiar theme in storytelling, but not often thought about deeply. This work by writers from writing organisation 26 has been inspired by the poet Lemn Sissay’s installation Superman was a Foundling that can be seen on the walls of the Foundling Museum in the heart of Bloomsbury. Lemn’s list includes David Copperfield, Harry Potter and Superman. Who would you pick?

The international group of writers from 26 have each chosen their own favourite fictional characters who lost natural parents in childhood. They have drawn on classic literature, childhood favourites, comic books and folklore, characters from film and modern drama. They have each created sestudes (a form that’s exactly 62 words). Visitors will be invited to find the 26 pieces of work on a digital trail around the museum, using the easy Smartify app.

For more details about the ’26 Orphan’s event’, please see: https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/events/26-orphans/

Bloomsbury Radio talk to Eva Driskell about the upcoming 'Silent Caligraphy' event. For more details about this free event, please see: https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/events/silent-calligraphy/