The first, is from the Foyle Foundation and will go towards the development and sustainability of the Creative Talent Programme.

The second, from the British Council, will enable us to run a second Youth in Action Exchange, with 2 partners countries, Spain and Norway. They will be in Kingston for this project throughout IYAF 2013 so do say hello if you see them!

We would like to thank both the Foyle Foundation and the British Council for their generous support.

After the success of last year’s event, the IYAF Launch Party is returning, giving everyone the perfect excuse to celebrate the return of the festival season.

Bringing you a dazzling array of live bands and performances, the launch party is a wonderful opportunity to see snippets of what IYAF 2013 will offer.

There will also be the chance to buy a Festival Pass at the early bird discount rate of £70 (£35 conc.) giving you access to all IYAF events and membership of the festival club. This offer ends on the 7th June so get in quick!

Don’t be shy, come and join us at The Rose Theatre’s Culture Cafe for an evening of fun and frolicks.

The launch party will run from 7.00pm until late, bring your dancing shoes…

The Creative Talent Programme identifies young and emerging artists and organisations who have the potential to become excellent creative practitioners and gives them the artistic, business and strategic support to become flourishing, challenging, exciting organisations of the future.

The programme provides year long support and encourages the artists to push their boundaries, create new work and work in collaboration with other organisations to create inter-disciplinary work as well as developing and mentoring their core skills and products.  Importantly Creative Youth works in partnership with key sponsors and partners to ensure that these young companies are equipped with key business skills allowing them to turn theirvisions into commercial ventures ensuring that the arts continue to prosper and be a fundamental part of the future of Britain. Through Creative Talent we are investing in the future of the arts and putting our faith in the young people who will inspire future generations.

The three new companies that Creative Talent  now supports are:

Tankus the Henge

The world of Tankus the Henge is uplifting and wild, dark and heartfelt.  A six piece powerhouse of a band drawing visual and musical influences from old time Fairgrounds to modern day Circus; The Beatles to Tom Waits and Gogol Bordello to Radiohead, they embody a look and a sound that lies somewhere between their South East London home and the carnival town of New Orleans.

With their charismatic frontman, Jaz Delorean, looking like a lost character from a Terry Gilliam film and the pump and grind of the Tankus the Henge sound generating a groove that makes it impossible to stand still, their live show ebbs and flows like a small boat on a turbulent sea.

EDDance

 EDDance is a London-based company of dance artists under the direction of choreographer Edd Mitton.  We enjoy working in a variety of styles and spaces, but always share a commitment to making work for performance which is beautiful, intelligent and accessible.  Recent pieces have included Stabat Mater, a non-narrative work danced to music by Vivaldi, The Renewable Trilogy - a trio of pop-up dances celebrating all things eco-friendly, and a scratch performance of Liaisons - a narrative ballet relocating the action of the infamous Les Liaisons Dangereuses to a 1920s soiree.  We continue to seek inspiration from a wide range of sources, and are always eager to hear from other artists or companies interested in collaborating.’

Filskit Theatre

Filskit Theatre are an all-female ensemble with a passion for micro-projection. With our innovative use of technology we aim to create work that ignites the imagination of children and adults alike. By mixing original music with shadow work, adding a dash of light and a sprinkle of movement, we create our very own Filskit blend of show.

Sarah Gee, Katy Costigan and Victoris Dyson formed Filskit Theatre after meeting on the European Theatre Arts Course at Rose Bruford College.

If you would like more information on The Creative Talent Programme or any of our Creative Talent companies then please get in touch at hello@iyafestival.org.uk .

With over 300 shows, 91 visiting companies and 5 new venues, IYAF 2013 is set to be even bigger and better than last year. Come and see theatre, circus, dance, puppetry, live music, visual art, film, comedy, poetry and much more across 18 glorious days in July.

Get in early and book now to avoid disappointment!

Festival Passes are also available at the early bird price of £70 (£35 conc.) giving you access to every IYAF event and membership of the festival club. This offer end on the 7th June so get in quick!

To book, please visit The Rose Theatre Box Office or call them on 08444 821 556

Tickets will also be available online shortly.

In 2012 HRH The Earl of Wessex enjoyed performances from some of the most exciting young talent around as part of the Creative Youth Gala Dinner. Prince Edward was among an audience who helped to raise over £10,000 at the black tie dinner, along with other well known figures such as Strictly Come Dancing’s Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova and a number of high profile business people and supporters.

In 2013, the evening will consist of a champagne reception with canapés commencing at 7.15pm followed by a dinner. Highlights include performances from some of South West London’s most exciting young talents, an auction, including prizes such as a Fender Stratocaster guitar signed by Pete Townshend, and an entertaining raffle.

Creative Youth works with hundreds of young people throughout the year delivering artistic projects of exceptional quality and providing training and mentorship opportunities to young people, supporting the next generation by providing transferable skills.  Since its inception just three years ago the International Youth Arts Festival has grown from engaging with 450 young people to an astonishing 7000 in 2012. It highlights the high quality of youth arts locally, within the UK and from around the world.    We need your help to ensure we can continue to provide year round support to the young people we work with and a platform for them to showcase and celebrate their passions and skills at IYAF.

We do hope that you will be able to join us for this special evening at the Holiday Inn Kingston and support Creative Youth and the International Youth Arts Festival.

Tickets are £100 per person or a table for 10 for £1000

To book tickets for this event please complete the booking form and return to phil@creativeyouthcharity.org

If you are unable to be there on the day, you can still help to make it a success – provide an auction or raffle item, or simply make a donation at http://iyafestival.org.uk/donate

The 2013 International Youth Arts Festival, Kingston will run from the 6th – 28th July 2013.

Although formal applications are closed we may be able to discuss slots on outdoor stages, cabaret and showcase performances and special projects, so please feel free to contact us at hello@creativeyouthcharity.org.  We are now getting cracking on programming the biggest, most eclectic, most spectacular, jaw dropping, eye popping International Youth Arts Festival, Kingston yet!

2012 has been almost certainly the most spectacular and successful IYAF yet – over 8000 young performers came to Kingston and few failed to amaze their audiences. Within theatre, just some of the highlights include National Youth Music Theatre’s beautiful gala performance of The Dreaming, the powerful Razing Eddie by Horizon Arts and the Chipstead Players’ Punk Rock. Meanwhile many studio shows were a hit, selling out their venues and engendering incredible feedback, such as The Pearl by Dumbshow, The Wordcatcher by Smoking Apples and Beatrice on Fire by Hattie Thomas. You can read just some of the overwhelmingly positive feedback on our Reviews & Feedback page.

Our Friends Records once again came to the fore, providing the soundtrack to 17 days of madness. The Rose Theatre Culture Café truly became the festival hub this year, as many came through the theatre doors simply to enjoy the daily dose of live music laid on by the OFR boys, with highlights including Robin Mae & The Impressionists and Ojo de Gringa. Elsewhere, audiences at both The Market Place and All Saints’ Church Gardens were treated to a plethora of free live music over all weekends of the festival from artists such as Tankus the Henge, Felix Hagan and the Family, They Say Jump and Tommy Hare.

Meanwhile circus was bigger than ever at this year’s IYAF. With Circus Suburbia leading the way, exquisite aerial performances were found at Eagle Brewery Wharf, including during the finale, in the Rose Theatre café throughout the festival and during the unique Redefining Space performance at Space @ Riverside Bishop’s Palace House venue. In the final two weekends, the future generation of circus performers were given some lessons through a series of workshops at EBW.

And they weren’t the only ones. IYAF’s first ever workshop week has already put us on the path towards the next generation – from theatre workshops from the likes of byMoonlight Theatre and Dave Spinx, to the Make an Album in a Week workshop run by Our Friends Records which saw the release of Yolk: The Best of IYAF at the end of the festival (available from £5 – contact OFR through Facebook).

Elsewhere fans of comedy, visual art, dance, film, poetry, fashion and craft all had their own unique afternoons and evenings across the town’s 15 venues.

Some of the thousands of photos taken at IYAF events can be found through either our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/iyafestival or our Tumblr account at http://iyaf2012.tumblr.com.

Creative Youth wish to extend a massive thank you to everybody involved – performers, staff, trustees and our IYAF Volunteers, without whom this would not have been possible.

Roll on IYAF 2013!

If you have any feedback on anything you have seen or experienced as part of IYAF 2012, please fill in our contact form.

Raizing Eddie is the new gritty drama by Philip Stokes. It tells the tale of Eddie’s return from serving a 4 year prison sentence after being falsely accused of stabbing his former best friend. Eddie returns to find his ex-girlfriend, Shanie, has settled in with a wealthy, no-show, with a “telly big enough to sleep on”. Insistent that Shanie has turned into “Chelsea scum”, Eddie attempts to win her back by staying on the sofa of her new boyfriend’s house and re-integrating himself into her life. Using a series of football analogies, Raizing Eddie examines the inner-workings of football hooliganism, social class, and prejudice.

As the story unfolds, Shanie and Eddie are haunted by physical embodiments of their guilt: ghosts in the form of Billy, Eddie’s best friend whom he was accused of stabbing, and the daughter that Shanie never had, having aborted her at a young age. After accepting their ghosts as parts of their lives and beginning to learn to live with them, Billy’s sister turns up out-of-the-blue to try and unravel what really happened the night that Billy died.

Words really cannot do justice to not only Stokes’ script, but the cast who portrayed it. The young actors and actresses clearly poured their hearts and souls into their roles, which came across beautifully on stage. The dialogue chosen by Stokes was the right balance of serious and humorous, as if he’d just transcribed conversations he’d overheard. There was no point in the performance with a definite punch line, or an uninterrupted monologue – this really made this play special in that it was so true to life. Even the plot twists were realistic and unpredictable, without having that overdramatic soap flare that one might find post-watershed on the terrestrial channels.

To put more pressure on the performers there were no set changes, just the living room of Shanie’s new house, eerily lit by a mock-fireplace. The lack of staging allowed the audience and cast alike to become absorbed into the detailed plot as well as the high levels of acting going on onstage. To show time lapses or indeed a new character entering the play, sounds of football commentaries-gone-by were played through the speakers. As the play developed and the tensions grew, so did the action taking place in the commentaries which gained excitement and momentum as the play came to its climax.

Raizing Eddie was an astonishing and unexpected performance, which didn’t leave a dry eye in the house. Even the cast were in tears as they took their final bow which goes to show how moving the theatre can be. The entire cast and crew are ones to watch for the future, they were an absolute gem to find amidst the busy schedule of the International Youth Arts Festival.

Fleeing lovers, local am-drams and wild woodlanders, the National Youth Music Theatre’s (NYMT) production of The Dreaming in the Rose Theatre’s Main House offers something for everyone. Set in a Somerset village during midsummer’s night, The Dreaming is a musical that closely follows the plot of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The story begins with Lord Melstock preparing for his birthday celebrations, until he is interrupted with the news that some of his friends have ran off through the forest to elope. Little does he know that they will soon run into an abundance of fairy trouble. Meanwhile, the village Vicar is preparing a group of am-drams for a pageant for Lord Melstock’s birthday, however, when they are forced to rehearse in the forest, they too fall into the curse of the fairies.

Knowing that the show was being performed by NYMT, I naturally went along with great expectations for what I was about to see and I was not disappointed! For such young performers, the group were incredibly professional with every single member fully engaged in what they were doing. All the musical numbers were pitch perfect with an array of beautiful harmonies, not only showcasing the strong voices of the cast but also the extraordinary talent of the orchestra. I particularly enjoyed the Cuckoo Song performed by the Villagers. The characters involved each delivered a highly amusing performance, while maintaining harmonies that were reminiscent of a barber-shop quartet. A particular mention goes to Luke Leahy, as the village butcher Nick Cheek, for a truly outstanding performance. Not only did he perform brilliantly with the villagers, but he also made a magnificent goat!

However, if I had to give one point of criticism it would have to be that there were too many songs! I know this is a very odd thing to say given that it was a musical, but I personally felt that if there was a little more narrative between the musical numbers it would have made it a little easier to follow – particularly for any members of the audience who aren’t familiar with Shakespeare’s play.

Nevertheless, The Dreaming is an excellent show that showcases the exceptional talent of young musical theatre performers. From young children to OAPS, it is suitable for everyone! So grab your entire family and head down to the Rose Theatre for a musical extravaganza!

by Jarek Zaba

24 hours later than scheduled, myself and Liam Cottrell, 1/3 of Our Friends Records, prepare to conduct our interview in the Rose Theatre. But first, we must prepare – Liam orders two shots of whiskey. There’s a reason I favoured OFR for our feature piece.

With those formalities out the way, we get to business. This Friday the Rose Theatre Main House will be host to one of OFR’s festival highlights, Folk N’ Roll. While the rest of the festival sees them programming events and gigs all over town and in the Rose Culture Café, Folk N’ Roll is their opportunity to take over the entire building which during the festival they call home. “The idea is that whenever an act finishes in the Main House, an act starts in the café,” Liam says. “So it’s going to bounce back and forth. You’ll come out and there’ll be a band playing, you get your booze, watch 15 minutes, go back in.” And what can we expect? “If you’re coming on Friday, bring your dancing shoes. There’ll be no better place to be. The headline act, The Ceilidh Liberation Front, play stunning folk music that turns any venue into a dancefloor.” Liam is an engaging and passionate speaker when discussing music, and grows visually more excited as he discusses the evening. Support acts include Jack Harris – “Nick Drake crossed with Van Morrison” – and House of Hats, “an amazing combo who write genuinely beautiful songs.” It is typically IYAF and typically OFR – an unorthodox event for a theatre hosting an unorthodox combination of musical styles that ensures a memorable evening of vibrancy and fun.

The café, meanwhile, will see the launch of OFR’s very first album, Yolk – The Best Bits of IYAF, with many of artists involved, such as The Mayflies, showcasing their tracks. The record was produced in OFR’s Create An Album In A Week workshop at Hook Studios, which saw them collaborate with their favourite artists and a team of ten young volunteers as part of IYAF’s workshop week at the start of the festival. Essentially the album represents the realisation of a seven year dream for OFR, dating back to their formative year in 2005. “Initially all we did was run open mic nights for around two years in uni,” says Liam, who runs OFR alongside Miles Lacey and Tim Fulker. “We thought we should bring our friends together and make a little community out of it where every band could benefit from each other’s fanbase. Then we thought, let’s get us all on a record and get it out there.” Easier said than done. “I don’t think we thought so hard about the actual mechanics of releasing a record and how financially unforgiving it is. But now with the help of IYAF, we’ve been able to literally make the our friends record – all the people on the record are our friends.”

Liam and Miles play the Culture Café

And how was the process of making it? “The young volunteers were brilliant. They really got to grips with how to set up the studio – stuff like how to mic up and use the mixing desk. A lot of them at the end were saying they really wanted to do more at the studio.” For a company that has benefited from Creative Youth’s mentoring over the past four years, it is significant for both them and for the charity that they are now themselves passing wisdom onto the next generation of would-be music programmers. “That’s how we need to grow,” Liam continues. “I want to get young people programming a bunch of the stuff that we do now – as the festival grows, there’ll be more for us to do, and there’s only three of us so we won’t be able to do it all. So we need to pass some of the stuff that we do onto other people who are going to do really well, who can use our contacts, our guidance, our equipment etc.”

Liam makes no attempt to downplay the role of IYAF and Creative Youth in enabling OFR to expand, as they benefit from the Creative Talent programmealongside six other young companies. “If this hadn’t have come along, I think we’d still just be running open mics. It’s all started to expand in the best way possible, and we’re just so glad that we’ve got ourselves organised and that we’ve got this great opportunity to bring the bands we love to a bigger wider stage. IYAF has been probably the biggest thing to happen in terms of getting us from A to B in realising our goals.” I enquire as to what specific support they are thankful for. “The best thing, apart from all the massive practical support throughout the years, is getting us to work with Continental Drifts.” Drifts are an international events production company who run stages at Glastonbury, Bestival, Lovebox and Secret Garden Party, as well as nights at a variety of venues across London. Liam again speaks with great passion about their help. “It was such an eye opener; we were just a bunch of kids essentially and they turned us into a business. They taught us about getting every strand of an event organised – contingency plans and making sure you have all your information ready for when you need it. And because we’ve listened to them, this year’s festival has been a million times easier for us, compared to last year which was much more of a stress.” The journey from protégé to mentor is essentially the perfect Creative Talent story.

Liam attempts to enjoy the rain at Little Bird 2011

I ask Liam what he enjoys most about IYAF. The answer is direct and straightforward. “The dancing. Not that I can dance, but I try.” It is a trademark of OFR gigs to see Liam and Miles taking the lead on the dancefloor, often in the most exaggerated, hyperactive and sweaty way possible. “I remember doing gigs putting on new bands in Camden years back, and people would just be chilling out and not really doing anything. So we thought, if we dance really stupidly and really hard, people will be less inhibited themselves. I mean, no one can possibly look at stupid as Miles – it’s an impossibility. And I’m OK with looking stupid if I can get everybody to come up and join me. We make idiots of ourselves and have a better time as a consequence.” As for a specific highlight over the years, he points to the set of Alternative Dubstep Orchestra at the Little Bird Festival in Fairfield Park last year, which followed a day of extreme torrential rain. “It followed some of the worst stress I’ve ever encountered. That much rain made logistics absolutely impossible – stages get shut down at much larger festivals when it’s that heavy, never mind something as small scale as Little Bird. But ultimately, people just got together, started coming through the gates, and then we made it a good party. And the band were just biblical, something else entirely.”

Tommy Hare with Jaz Delorean and Louis Schultz-Wiremu of Tankus the Henge, Liam’s highlight of IYAF 2012 so far

And in 2012? “Obviously Folk N’ Roll is going to be the highlight.” (Liam rarely takes his promotional head off). “But so far, [blues artist] Tommy Hare at the market square on the opening weekend. You’ll see him again on Saturday [in the Rose Theatre Culture Café from 1pm] – he has the most incredible voice. He came in at the last minute because somebody else cancelled – he’d had a bit to drink but played an absolute blinder of a set, and then at the end Jaz [Delorean of Tankus the Henge] got up a started jamming with him. Then suddenly the drummer and saxophonist from Tankus got up and started playing, playing things like Rum and Coca Cola and all these old tunes. Everyone was amazed – they’re not household names but they should be.” But Liam remains convinced that something this weekend will better it, either at Folk N’ Roll or the outdoor stages this weekend. “Man, Sunday, Jesus Christ man. We’ve got this band from Birmingham who play a mixture of Reel Big Fish and Fallout Boy, we’ve got Strobe Circus who are going to play reggae and dubstep…”

I interrupt, knowing that if he goes into every artist on this weekend the Rose will probably lock up and we’ll get trapped upstairs. While talking to Liam about music is a pleasure, there is always the danger that it will go on forever and as if to prove the point, we wrap up to find the bar is now closed. Nonetheless, my appetite is sufficiently whetted for this weekend’s programme.

Folk N’ Roll starts at 20:00 on Friday 20 July in the Rose Theatre. Tickets £5 – https://uk.patronbase.com/_RoseTheatreKingston/Sections/Choose?prod_id=Y031&perf_id=1

Our Friends Records will be programming music at the free KTown Stage in the Market Place from 11am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday, as well as their regular festival base in the Rose Theatre Culture Café.  

The International Youth Arts Festival Kingston 2012 – Presents Showtime London
Saturday 21st July 2012 – Various Locations across Kingston – Free!

12:00 – 1245 Market Place: 
Lyrix Organix – Step into the Relay Sessions, a poet, a beatboxer, a freestyle rapper and an acoustic singer. Behind lies a backdrop of live street art. This is a relay like no other. “Lyrix Organix: Relay‟ is an immersive and interactive street gig for audiences of all ages. Lyrix Organix has become renowned for unearthing the UK‟s finest talent (Ed Sheeran, Maverick Sabre, Michael Kiwanuka) and curating innovative productions from Glastonbury to UpRise festivals. This „Lyrix Organix: Relay‟ show at Showtime will draw heavily from the cultural diversity of London, donate artwork to boroughs and provide platforms for local artists.                
13:00 – 13:45 Eagle Brewery Wharf & Clarence Street
Dot Comedy – Walkabout Comedy group providing entertainment and laughter throughout the streets of Kingston

13:30 – 14:00 Clarence st & Market Place
EEA (Mechanical Elephant) Famous go-anywhere steel elephant (she met the Queen you know!) which has been seen across the UK, making appearances from Canterbury to Edinburgh and at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

15:00 – 15:45 Eagle Brewery Wharf & Market place
Dot Comedy as above. 

16:00 – 16:45 Market Place
Lyrix Organix – As Above

17:15 – 17:45 Clarence Street & Market Place
EEA (Mechanical Elephant)- As above

18:00 – 22:00 All Saints Church Gardens
Continental Drifts – See full programme below. Various Bands including Brassroots where the Brass band quite Literally is turned on its head, led by Brassroots, the U.K favourite Brass Band Remixed, who are much more likely to be blasting Nirvana and White Stripes . This is Brass for all ages and begins with swing dance lessons in the 1930`s Brass style for all and ends with Brassroots performing with the UKs no1 Break-dance crew ADT , spinning to their sounds and encouraging the public to have a go . Brassroots will also be joined by other proponents of the Brass Band Remix in all guises including Gypsy Hills Brass and Hackney Colliery Band, Top Shelf Jazz and lashings of new sounds.

21:00 – 21:05 All Saints Church Gardens
Arcadia – Lords Of Lightning – Harnessing 4 million volts of raw electricity into a spectacular flow of oscillating chaos, the legendary Lords of Lightning are charged, primed and ready to launch into the realms of sizzling myth with their awe inspiring live performance. Primal enchantment and technological alchemy fuse into the coruscating crackles of the heavens as their bolts of burning energy rip through the barriers of science, setting eyeballs ablaze and rattling fluid physics into glorious spectacle. Quite literally raising the hairs off the necks of any crowd and tearing preconceptions inside out, the Lords are set to illuminate the night sky with real lightning!          

22:00 – 22:05 All Saints Church Gardens
Arcadia – Lords of Lightning – As above

Continental Drifts (All Saints Gardens) Stage Schedule:

18:00 – 18:30 Lil Koko
18:30 – 19:30 Swing dance lessons with Swing Patrol
19:30 – 20:00 Lil Koko
20:00 – 20:45 Mimika
20:45 – 21:05 Lil Koko
21:05 – 22:00 Brassroots + ADT Breakdancers

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