Case Study for SO Festival

24 February 2017

The growth of a European partnership From Skegness to Denmark & Sweden and beyond SO Festival began in 2009 when Swedish arts organisation Intercult staged Black/North SEAS in Skegness, in partn...

The growth of a European partnership From Skegness to Denmark & Sweden and beyond SO Festival began in 2009 when Swedish arts organisation Intercult staged Black/North SEAS in Skegness, in partnership with Passage Festival in Elsinore/Helsingborg (Denmark/Sweden). Kicking off the partnership through SEAS focused on European culture exchange via the sea that both separates and unites European countries. As UK’s only host, Skegness welcomed over 100 international artists, with performances ranging from dance & video, and art pieces that the audience became a part of. Elsinore is coastal city, the home of Hamlet, and has in the last 10 years had huge investments in culture; a new already world famous maritime museum and a complete renovation of the harbour area to remain a public space with many cultural activities. Skegness is a traditional seaside town in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, which welcomes over 350,000 visitors per year. The area has very little cultural infrastructure; but SO Festival welcomes an audience of over 80,000 to its free outdoor arts festival.  Building on the partnership established in 2009, Magna Vitae  www.magnavitae.org who now run, SO  festival will in partnership with PASSAGE Festival  http://passagefestival.nu/? language=engelska introduce and develop an exchange project of street theatre in public spaces to investigate how to work artistically in public spaces in coastal towns in the years to come. We are working on parallel programming across both festivals for 2017, with European & UK companies performing in both Skegness and Helsingborg/Elsinore, and from 2018 the partnership will extend our exchange to more European festivals and countries, investigating the role of identity across borders, commissioning new work together which explores these issues. www.sofestival.org