Liverpool’s Angel Field Festival of the arts begins this week – and will showcase some of the North West’s most exciting local musicians and composers.
With an eclectic mix of events covering Motown, funk and soul, classical guitar, dance, live storytelling and film screenings, the week-long festival offers something for everyone.
The Angel Field Festival 2022 runs from Friday 11th March to Saturday 19th March 2022 and is organised and hosted by Liverpool Hope University.
Download festival brochure here.
The performances will take place in Liverpool’s Capstone Theatre and Cornerstone Theatre – both located at Hope’s city centre Creative Campus.
Manchester’s BBC-acclaimed funk stars Buffalo Brothers will be joined by Liverpool’s own up-and-coming jazz-funk-punk outfit Sweet Beans.
Liverpool songwriter Evie Moran, 20, has been likened to acts like Billie Marten and popular folk trio The Staves, and will support UK singer Nick James for a spectacular celebration of Soul, Motown, Swing Pop, Rock, RnB and Modern Pop.
But the Angel Field Festival 2022 doesn’t just support and salute local acts.
Joining the line-up is Newcastle-based choreographer Dora Frankel and composer Peter Coyte, whose Trails dance event will celebrate the work of English Romantic painter JMW Turner.
A free art exhibition, Signifiance: Painting Beyond Borders, will feature works from acclaimed contributors John Bunker, John Chilver, Phil Frankland, Gunther Herbst, Peter Lamb, Charley Peters, Simon Pike, Jessica Power, Michael Stubbs, Mark Wright.
Meanwhile there’s also an important theme running through this year’s showcase.
Professor Stephen Davismoon, festival director and Dean of Hope’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, explains:
“The theme of this year’s Angel Field Festival is ‘Strangers Transcending Borders’.
“2022 marks many historical and cultural anniversaries – perhaps the most pertinent to our community is the centenary of the Irish Civil War and the death of Michael Collins; the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. This being the case the theme of our upcoming Angel Field Festival ‘Strangers Transcending Borders’ invites creative provocations linked to it.”
Audiences can experience On Common Ground, a collection of two short plays that explore both Irish history but also contemporary politics. There will also be a special screening of director Ken Loach’s hard-hitting 2006 film The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which is set during the Irish War of Independence.
Another highlight is Asylum Monologues, a heart-rending reading of first-hand accounts from those seeking refuge and who have to run the gauntlet of the UK’s asylum system.
Alternatively, head to the Festival’s Ticketquarter pages.