Festival audiences increase more than FOUR-FOLD
• Value of tickets sold up by nearly a third (32%)*
• Number of tickets sold up by a fifth (21%)*
• Total audience for NNF10 increases by 450%
Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2010 closed its biggest, furthest-reaching and most successful Festival to date this weekend with
Music for Seven Ice Cream Vans in Norwich suburbs and a
Spiegel Show Down in Chapelfield Gardens. The Festival attracted almost 300,000 people and approximately 34,000* tickets were sold. This is a significant increase on 2009 when the May festival audience was just over 62,000 and (then) record ticket sales exceeded 28,000.
The increase was in part a result of increased ticket sales for music, dance, theatre, circus and children’s events but had a huge boost from the extended programme of outdoor performances and eye-catching visual arts installations and exhibitions.
Festival Director, Jonathan Holloway said: “This is unquestionably our most successful Festival ever but not just because of the numbers. This year has been about moments of great celebration and tremendous beauty. It has been about bringing some of the world’s leading performers to our region. And unleashing the creativity of the people who live in and visit the region.
“My personal highlights? Having my hair cut by a brilliant 10 yr old stylist from Catton Grove School. Watching the talented residents of Norwich create an extraordinary circus performance with NoFit State for an audience of 3000. Louis Lorte by candlelight. John Cale’s second encore. Jordi Savall’s incredible Jerusalem. Our audiences standing, cheering and stamping every night. The glorious cardboard city in Blackfriar’s Hall. And a RedBall that captivated the imagination of thousands.
“But for me the stars of the Festival have been the huge team of people who have worked tirelessly to make it happen and the audiences who have appreciated their work so vociferously.”
Norfolk & Norwich Festival Highlights
Haircuts by Children
Ninety-six mums, dads, students, politicians and local celebrities trusted a group of nine and 10 year-old children with their identities and started a new trend in blue stripes and pink beards and ever so slightly wonky mohican haircuts.
Electric Hotel
Audiences of 450 dance-lovers, theatre-lovers and curious teenagers a night braved wind, rain and plunging temperatures to watch a groundbreaking dance world premiere in a temporary four-storey building on Millennium Plain.
Festival Garden Party and free outdoor events
The sun came out and well over 20,000 people gathered in one weekend to learn to hula hoop, peer at a grown up man in an awfully small house, watch street theatre and party in Festival Gardens.
Jordi Savall
The legendary viola da gamba player Jordi Savall and a cast of 38 musicians stunned audiences with an internationally acclaimed and culturally momentous UK premiere of Jerusalem: a City of Two Peaces in Norwich Theatre Royal.
New Visual Arts Programme
A giant RedBall captured the hearts and imagination of adults and children alike. Hundreds of families experienced a Night in a Museum like none other at the Sainsbury Centre. A new Rock n Roll Library opened for 16 days courtesy of the Clash’s Mick Jones. And a series of insistent Neon Signs in windows stopped shoppers in their tracks. All these and more were just some of the highlights of the Festival’s first ever visual arts programme.
NoFit State Circus
Korfball players, a man on a bike, a six foot robotic dragon and some breath-takingly talented children from Chermond Gym put together a performance in under a week with the helpof NoFit State Circus and the people of Eaton Park, Norwich.
Spiegeltent
More false eyelashes and trilby hats than you can rattle your spats at; tea dances, swing dances, hula hoop training, CocoRosie and the show that defined this year’s Spiegeltent magic: La Vie which received a standing ovation almost every single night.
Baby Rave
A ska rave for babies that proved that you don’t have to be dapper to get down with the kids.
The Festival in numbers
• 278,000 estimated audience numbers for NNF10
• 49,996 text messages sent as part of A Short Message Spectacle (An SMS)
• 34,000 tickets sold
• 1000 performers taking part in NNF10
• 350 NNF10 events
• 140 volunteers working for NNF this May
• 100+ Funders, sponsors and partners
• 96 haircuts by the children of Norwich’s Catton Grove School
• 60 unique flags created by schools and community groups
• 23 world premieres, UK premieres and exclusives
• 16 days in May
• 8 Festival commissions
• 4th biggest city festival in the UK