Liz Moran and Lucy Keeley on the Playground Festival for early years audiences
This spring sees the premiere of the first ever Playground Festival, celebrating work for early years audiences all across Kent. With over 150 events on the programme, this is an exciting new undertaking, so we reached out to Creative Director Liz Moran and Playground Lead Lucy Keeley from Kent County Council to find out more about what to expect.
Hello both. Thanks for taking the time to tell us all about this amazing festival. It’s remarkable to have such a large event focussed entirely on early years work. What was the thinking behind that?
There are currently very few festivals that focus on offering inspiring and engaging creative work specifically designed for babies and young children under the age of five. This is despite the fact that the first years of life are the most crucial for brain development. We hope through the festival to influence and encourage others to consider babies and young children as equal to other audiences both in terms of artists creating work as well as funders and venues.
Can you tell us about the different places across the county you have chosen to host events?
from Kent County Council
Playground currently works across the county in a range of venues including libraries, special needs settings and family hubs. The festival will take place in many of these and additionally in cultural venues such as the Gulbenkian Arts Centre and the Beaney in Canterbury, JVHome in Ashford and The Ark in Cliftonville. Our ambition is that the festival activity is accessible and inclusive wherever you live in Kent.
The festival showcases both national and international companies; what are some of the highlights?
It is really difficult to single out individual events as highlights but we are very pleased to have a range of specially commissioned work from our own Playground Artists alongside our commission of Makers of Imaginary Worlds to create The Garden, which features interactive technology including Soma Robotics. Starcatchers from Scotland bring a new production, Island, prior to performing at the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, and First Light, a beautiful sound and light installation by Daniel Naddafy and Marty Langthorne. Other international work includes an immersive installation, Fields of Tender from Sweden, interactive fun with wooden blocks from Teatro Al Vacio from Mexico, Wonder created by Dybwik Dans from Norway, Colour Workshops from Finland and some very naughty Girafes from Spain. We also have the Lumini a very special and intimate inflatable structure. In addition we are offering a range of discussions/sessions aimed at those interested in early years creative work.
Inclusivity is at the core of this work – are there events that cater specifically for children and families with special needs?
Two days of the festival will take place for students and their families at SEND school Wyvern in Ashford. In addition there are performances of Fields of Tender at JV Home in Ashford which have been specially designed for children with additional needs.
And you also have outdoor events – can you tell us about those?
Our ambition is to reach the most diverse and widest audiences as possible and taking our work outdoors enables us to reach many more babies and young children. We have programmed a range of work for our two days at Wyvern School, and one day in Dartford Central Park aimed at babies and young children. This includes our own Playground Band, Baby Bhangra from Cohesion Plus, street theatre performance – Tangle from Teatro Al VacIo, and fun with Les Girafes and musicians as well as the Lumini.
What does it mean for creatives in Kent to have this opportunity to collaborate and celebrate their work in such a significant global arena?
The festival provides a unique opportunity for creatives to see a range of work specially created for babies and young children and to meet other artists with a shared ambition and commitment to offering the highest quality of creative activity to very young children. This has the potential to lead to further international and national collaboration.
Thanks very much to Liz and Lucy for sharing their amazing insight into what promised to be a fabulous festival.
Playground Festival runs from Friday 22 to Sunday 31 May. See below for the full calendar of events, and to book your FREE tickets.
