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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 the city’s 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 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

4^th
biggest city festival in the UK

The Festival team is very keen to hear what you thought of this year’s events.  Anyone with a comment to make or experience to share should log on to www.nnf10.org.uk and click on the ‘Share your NNF10 Experience’ panel.  There is also a chance to win a pass to the Spiegeltent for NNF11 or an iPod Touch 32GB.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2011 runs from 6 – 21 May 2011, so you’ve got plenty of time to book all sixteen days off work in advance.

*Excludes ticket sales from Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts or Norwich Castle Museum and Gallery.

ENDS

 For more information or pictures, please contact Daisy Turville-Petre, Communications Officer, Norfolk & Norwich Festival: 01603 878281, 07776 235675 or at daisy@nnfestival.org.uk