A handful of advance shows have been announced for next year’s Norfolk & Norwich Festival – together with a new pop-up venue.
The annual festival will run from May 8 to 24, and for the first time will include a temporary 500-seat venue called the Main Stage in Norwich’s Chapelfield Gardens, next to the now-regular Spiegeltent stage.
The first act to perform at the new space will be circus act Gravity & Other Myths, who headlined the festival in 2019, and will return to present new show Out Of Chaos.
Irish/French singer Camille O’Sullivan, known for her theatrical performances, will take to the Main Stage for one night on May 17 to perform music by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, exploring the light and dark of the group’s music. O’Sullivan has previously played the Festival’s Speigeltent venue and separately at Norwich Playhouse.
Also returning to the Festival is pop music parody act Frisky & Mannish, playing a four-night run at the Speigeltent with their Pop Lab show.
Double Scotsman Edinburgh Fringe First winner Javaad Alipoor will present Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, a darkly comedic new play about entitlement, consumption and digital technology, that invites audiences to use Instagram throughout the production, with a three-night stint at The Garage.
Classical music highlights will include a performance by Mahler’s Third Symphony by the Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra at St Andrew’s Hall. The piece will be conducted by Matthew Andrews, with mezzo soprano Sara Fulgoni as soloist and the children’s voices of Norwich Cathedral Choir.
The Britten Sinfonia will return to St Andrew’s Hall following their sell-out performance of Beethoven’s Symphonies between 2017-2019. For 2020 they join with Alison Balsom for a programme of music exploring more than 300 years of composition, with arrangements of Purcell by some of the greatest composers of the present day including Maxwell Davies and John Woolrich.
Norfolk & Norwich Chamber Music will present a selection of Beethoven Piano Sonatas with Grammy-nominated pianist Richard Goode, performing at the John Innes Centre on May 16.
Performance art includes deadpan duo Hunt & Darton, who will bring their Radio Local concept to the festival: a brand new, hyper local station, broadcasting live, straight from city centre for 24-hours. Taking over the airwaves of Norfolk’s Future Radio the show celebrates everything about what it means to be local. Radio Local will also be working with communities in Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn, and Diss ahead of arriving in Norwich.
Tickets go on public sale from November 14. For more details see the festival website at nnfestival.org.uk
