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Sunderland International Friendship Festival
| Published: 3rd July 2009 09:32 |
This free event will take place on Saturday July 4 and Sunday July 5 from 11am - 5pm at the Northern Area Playing Fields in Washington. As well as featuring the popular kite festival, Sunderland International Friendship Festival plays host to innovative street theatre, exhibitions, family craft activities, storytelling, international cuisine and world music.
This year's festival will see demonstrations from a number of world class kite fliers who have travelled from as far as India, USA, Canada, Tasmania, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Sardinia, Holland and the Netherlands to join in the celebration. In addition to this, hundreds of kite makers from around the UK are also expected to visit the festival. Visitors will be able to fly their own kites throughout the weekend and witness the launch of the special Friendship Kite, which symbolises world friendship by The Right Worshipful Mayor of Sunderland, Councillor Dennis Richardson at 2.30pm on Sunday.
See AmaZing Kites at the Sunderland Friendship Festival.
Sunderland's Libraries will be encouraging families to get involved in this year's summer reading challenge and take part in Read Regional, which is a national campaign that supports writers and publishers in the North East. Poets of all ages will be able to take to the stage in one of the festival's three tipis to showcase their own work during the festival's first poetry slamming session. North East poets Jeff Price, Alfie Crowe and Radio 4's Katie Fox will be around to inspire amateur writers, whilst storyteller Tony Wilson and poet Craig Bradley will run poetry and storytelling sessions for children and their families as part of the BBC's poetry season. Visitors can meet a number of authors and choose books produced by a range of publishers in the reading marquee.
The music marquee will have performances by the Davy Lamp Folk Club, Mas Y Mas, Oxclose Music Project, Hot House Dragons and local schools that performed in this year's City Sings choral competition. There will also be a variety of performances of professional and community dance groups.
Some of the region's weird and wonderful street theatre companies will also make an appearance. With acts such as SWANK's Pearldeanie, two larger than life usherettes and Curious Company's brightly coloured stilt walking characters.
The 2009 International Friendship Festival has been organised by Sunderland City Council with support from the Arts Council, Sunderland Echo, Sun FM and DFDS Seaways.
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