b-side Festival to launch with abseiling poetry recital from Portland cliffs
And you can join in
An abseiling poetry recital from the cliffs on Portland tonight will mark the start of the b-side Festival.
b-side Festival will run from now until the 11th September with 15 major new contemporary artworks designed to celebrate the island’s unique landscape.
The festival will launch with a bespoke performance by climber and poet, Penny Newell. Audiences will be offered silent disco headphones and taken to the cliffs of East Weares for a one off, unique, abseiling poetry recital.
The night will then continue to the backdrop of Pennsylvania Castle and with a performance by The Fantasy Orchestra, which brings together over 50 musicians - both professional and amateur - to create an atmospheric soundtrack to the landscape of Portland. Fresh from their international bike tour, the band is set to rouse the crowds with their electronic covers of classic rock favourites and more obscure musical treasures.
Over the four day festival, visitors can expect to dive into a major new augmented reality artwork by Babar Suleman named ‘Requital. The Lighthouse as the Siren.’ By holding their phones over the Portland Bill Lighthouse, visitors can experience the Grade II listed landmark like they have never before - through a new augmented reality and queer lens, which will see the iconic building brought to life by references to mythical sirens.
In an exclusive screening during the evening of Saturday 10th September, visitors will be led down Portland’s coastal path, lit up by glowing lanterns, to Portland’s Pulpit Rock - one of Portland’s most iconic landmark features. Festival-goers will be guided to a cliff-edge viewing point where they can watch Suleman’s film exploring the myth of the siren, which will be projected onto Pulpit Rock, surrounded by the ambient crashing of waves against the cliff sides.
Penny Newell will also be joining b-side’s leading lineup by inviting visitors to join her on the Poetry Ledge, where they can abseil down Portland’s infamous cliffsides to an intimate one-to-one poetry workshop, perched on the rock-face itself. Here, visitors with a flair for adventure will be encouraged to reflect on their experience of seeing the island from a unique, new perspective, and produce their own poetry inspired by it.
Steve Urquhart will also be inviting festival-goers to consider a different side to Portland by showcasing a unique exploration of what the island sounds like behind the bars of Portland’s Prison with a deep listening soundscape. His immersive audio commission reveals the importance of sound to our current understanding of the world around us, and invites visitors to look at Portland from the inside-out.
The festival will culminate in b-side’s popular Big Portland Parade. Visitors and members of the local community will unite under the theme of ‘Keep Portland Weird,’ which challenges everyone to show off their most wonderful and weird costumes. This community parade will take over the island in a musical celebration of Portland’s unique character, landscape, and relationship with all who encounter it.
Artists will inspire visitors to reflect on what the natural world means to them through the uniting theme of ‘Common Lands,’ which encourages us to see the environment through a new lens. b-side explores three strands: That Other Place, This Land and Who Do We Think We Are? Each art project shines a new light on the relationships forged between the land and its inhabitants, illuminating queer, international and local perspectives on the island.
You can find a full programme of events here.