‘Rivers Meet’ for festival

NEWS will occupy its now-traditional slot, conjuring a carnival to celebrate the creativity of young people and artists from around the district, all converging on the Cathedral on Saturday, June 25 at 9pm.

But this year, with funding for the event reduced by two thirds, a few corners are having to be cut, says John Varrah, of organisers Same Sky.

In the past there have been four processions heading for the Cross down North Street, East Street, West Street and South Street, the points of the compass spelling out the word NEWS in the event’s title.

This year things will be a little different.

“This year the theme is Where Rivers Meet. We were getting into fishing with various things, and we were thinking it would be good to do something to do with water. We have been thinking about rivers meeting, about parades meeting. I came up with the idea of confluence, but it was a bit too complicated a word. We thought we needed something a bit less poetic, a bit less tricky, so we came up with Where Rivers Meet.

“This year the main parade will be North and South. They won’t be equal parades (in all four streets) this year. We have had the funding reduced, and there have been cuts everywhere. A lot of the costs on the night are to do with stewards and health and safety, so this year we are having three parades instead of four.

South will be jelly fish and tropical; the north river will be slightly colder in its images. The third parade will tie in with Pallant House Gallery’s exhibition of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.

“She was quite strange. A lot of her works are portraits of herself in different ways. She had quite a bad road accident and ended up damaging her back. She has done these paintings where the spine is metal, and she painted herself as different characters.”

And this will form part of the inspiration on the night, John said.