St Paul’s (Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1JP) welcomes you to their bi-annual arts festival showcasing live music, first-rate comedy and an art exhibition alongside a programme of creative workshops and thought-provoking talks. St Paul’s Artsfest aims to bring together people from across the city and beyond for a celebration of both community and the arts. Find out more about the jam-packed programme below!

Running from Wednesday 15th through until Saturday 18th September, this event is sure to spark the curiosity of many and bring together creative minds from both the local area and further afield. You are invited to come “get your hands dirty, to sing, to listen, to see, to participate in Artsfest 2021 and to recognise and celebrate the business of being ‘us’, of being ‘we’, and above all to have fun.”

Head down for the opening show tomorrow from 7.30PM and enjoy a comedy evening, drinks and nibbles featuring Juliet Meyers, Peter Holloway and Rev. Ravi Holy. From Thursday onwards you can expect to find all day activities such as the Café Hub and Art Exhibition plus on Thursday and Friday there will be lunchtime concerts starting at 12.30PM.

Take a look at the full events programme over on the festival website here – and keep reading to find out more about the upcoming concerts and evening events as well as the creative daytime workshops being run by some of the leading lights in the creative industry!

The festival committee says: “The 2021 St Paul’s Artsfest is a new beginning as are most things in the Covid and post-lockdown age. In common with many activities at the moment, it is a re-start, a re-invention and a re-examination of something that the mind already knows.” They add: “Our Artsfests have always been a celebration of the creative power of our community in all its manifestations. They have been an attempt to show the ‘we’-ness hidden under the surface.”

DAYTIME WORKSHOPS

Book your tickets here for ‘Silk Screen Printing’ with Off The Press Collective (@offthepresscollective), ‘Bend It Like Quilters’ with Sue Calverley and Kip Gresham (@theprintstudio_cambridge), ‘Self Portraits’ with Liz Diamond, ‘Kickstart Your Creative Writing’ with Jo Browning Wroe, ‘Look & Draw’ with Steve Russell, ‘Breakdown The Elements Of Art’ with Annabel Lee and more!

Multi-award-winning dramatist, Nick Warburton will be taking participants through the creation of character, voice and narration, and structure in ‘Writing Drama’. Nick has written scripts for stage, television and radio. Alongside his many national radio dramas, Nick has written TV scripts for Doctors, Holby City, Born and Bred as well as EastEnders.

‘Electronic Music’ sees Drum & Bass producers and DJs from Cambridge, Logistics & Nu:tone (@nutone), taking workshop participants through the process of writing, recording, and mixing a piece of electronic music in this four-hour workshop. Logistics and Nu:Tone are signed to Hospital Records and have been working in the music business since the early 2000s. Between them, they have released 16 albums and countless singles and remixes.

We are looking forward to joining Off The Press Collective, a printmaking collective based in Bury St Edmunds, for their printing workshop on Friday. They specialise in the production of quality prints and are passionate about keeping traditional processes alive. The workshop will be an introduction into the silk screen printing process or a refresher for those who would like to revisit it. Hope to see you there!

There will be a children’s art workshop running on Saturday from 10AM suitable for those aged 5-11. This workshop will be lead by Mary Saldanah, an experienced primary school teacher who now runs the online art project, Startle Art (@startleartroom), producing materials for primary school children. Mary has been particularly busy during the recent periods of lockdown helping parents provide quality art activities for their children.

EVENING TALKS & SHOWS

Alongside these daytime workshops, there are a series of talks tackling a wide range of topics, including political activism, contemporary feminism, the information age, religion, and poetry, which includes a reading from the world poetry slam champion, Harry Baker.

Other performances include music from Martyn Joseph, jazz with award-winning British saxophonist Tony Kofi and multi-instrumentalist Tim Boniface, and songs from well known musicals with the ‘Scratch Choir’. Head down to rehearse and perform songs with local music teacher and musical theatre composer Simon Humphreys, who will lead the choir, and lecturer in music and tenor Larry Zazzo, who will perform some beautiful counter tenor solos.

Book your tickets for the talks, workshops and performances here and follow Artsfest on Twitter and Facebook. St Paul’s Cambridge is a part of the Church of England in the diocese of Ely. The church and their staff are dedicated to providing a thriving community space open to all. They provide opportunities for local, national and international organisations and rooms for hire for meetings, special occasions and celebrations.

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