Norfolk and Norwich Festival
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arts and music festival centred on Norwich in East Anglia. The Norfolk & Norwich Festival was established in 1772 to support the building of the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital. It grew substantially in the mid-1990s when directed by Marcus Davey, who now runs London concert venue The Roundhouse, and is now under the direction of Jonathan Holloway, who founded and ran the National Theatre's outdoor festival Watch This Space.
The eclectic event has included major performances and new works by Ray Davies of the Kinks, Carl Davis with the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing a Charlie Chaplin film score, Alexander Balanescu in residence and many others.
It has now branched out to include outdoor and site specific performances including large-scale free events.
In marketing terms, the Festival first became television news when it made the unusual move of employing a public relations consultancy that handled the Independent Family Brewers of Britain. By avoiding the arts mainstream, this appointment started an odd tradition of peculiar launch events that survives today and, naturally, led to the event's own beer, FestivAle.
The Festival runs in numerous Norwich venues.
