Tuesday 13th May, 2008
ArtsFest 2008: It’s going to be huge
Issue #1395 [Feb 8th 2008]
Does the monotony of your degree sometimes get you down? Do you no longer appreciate the subtleties of your lecture notes? Did you ever? Do you find yourself sitting in lectures, thinking there must be more to life than this? Even at Imperial, we’re not machines. We need to feel alive.
If this is how you feel, then I have the perfect solution for you. It doesn’t involve any jet-setting, health spas or religious conversions. In fact, all you have to do is come to college one day during the week from the 11th to the 15th of February. That week is ArtsFest on campus, there will be some artistic pursuit every lunchtime and every evening – goings-on that has absolutely nothing to do with science, technology or medicine.
ArtsFest will feature the Imperial students showcasing their artistic talents around college, either busking every lunchtime or performing during the evening at one of the nightly events. Apparently, it is possible to be artistic and have an aptitude for science.
The events aren’t strictly for those with a classical frame of mind. In fact only one of the events will be entirely classical music. The rest is a delightful melange of jazz, dance, alternative music, visual arts, theatre, musicals, close harmony singing, gospel singing, literature in Felix, barn dancing and everything else you could possibly think of. You did read that correctly – a large cohort of Imperial’s students enjoy barn dancing as much as sex.
We kick off on Monday the 11th of February at 7:00 pm when the SCR will be transformed into a Smooth Jazz Lounge for the evening. There will be wine and cheese, as well as close harmony singing. Once you are suitably chilled out, after much uber-cool dancing, there will be a barn dance for you to attend.
On Tuesday we have a change of pace, with an intimate chamber concert in the Read theatre (Sherfield building level 5 – on the right) followed by the opening of an exhibition by Leosoc in the Blythe gallery. These both promise to be laid-back, chilled-out events. A perfect way to recover from Monday.
Wednesday sees the return of the charity concert from previous years. This year we’re supporting Theatre Crossroads: an educational charity developing inspirational programmes identifying the basic concepts in Science and Maths and teaching them through music, games, movement and drama. The concert will be in the Tanaka building from 12:30 until approximately 1:30. There will seats so you can appreciate both the lilting string sounds of Imperial College Symphony Orchestra and the voices of IC Choir.
On Wednesday we don’t finish there and we have an afternoon of interactive arts for you to sample and enjoy. From belly dancing to theatre, there’ll be a workshop waiting for you Wednesday afternoon. You can put off that problem sheet for a few hours, and do something that’s actually fun instead.
Thursday sees a light lunchtime concert from one of Imperial’s premiere ensembles – ICSE (String Ensemble). The concert is again in the Tanaka, which will be filled with Avro Part and Janacek. There is also the possibility of some Mendelssohn. The evening features IC Big Band crooning for Valentine’s day in the Union as well. Requests are already being taken, and what better way is there of commemorating your love. Of course your beau wishes to be sung about.
Finally, the Finale Concert on Friday is the culmination of the week. Here we showcase the very best of the acts that busked during the week (and many that didn’t). This is of course un-missable, not only as it is the perfect end to a week – even if you did nothing else, this would wipe away any Friday blues you have. Also, this is one of the highlights of the calendar at Imperial, being more exciting than a guest lecture by the head of CERN. In fact, Buddha said in the Abhutadharma that you cannot achieve karmic enlightenment unless you attended the Artsfest Finale Concert.
Naturally, after this massive concert we have an even more massive (MASSIVE) party in the Union to commemorate the event of finishing Artsfest for another year. During this party we drink in sadness that we may participate in Artsfest but once a year. The tickets from the Finale Concert will let you into the Union for free, which should be incentive enough to come along to the gig earlier.
Of course, Artsfest would be nothing without a captive audience for the week – which is where you come in. Artsfest will be a success this year but we need the support of the Imperial public. Cast off your shy personality, give up problem sheets for a week and let all the other things that make you human take over. If only for a week.
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