Steve Wright quizzes the team behind this summer’s new arrival – the poetry, dance and theatre-led World Stage Festival.

Harbour Fest, BrisFest, Balloon Fiesta, Shakespeare Fest, Organic Food Fest, a pair of comedy jamborees… Bristol’s summertime events calendar is hardly threadbare. A new international performing arts festival, though, has thrown itself right into the thick of our city’s teeming summer diary. For four days early this month, the first-ever World Stage Festival (Thur 7-Sun 10) will bring theatre, poetry, music and dance from across the globe to venues across Bristol city centre, both indoors and outdoors.

So, just what is World Stage – and where’s it come from? The festival is the brainchild of one Colin Gorrie, who grew up in Bristol before leaving for Canada, where he worked as an architect and events organiser and from whence he’s recently returned. And it’s got a markedly international feel. Highlights include New York slam poetry trio The Mayhem Poets, who blend hip-hop, theatre, improv and stand-up into their gut-wrenching tales about NY city life, and Afro-Brazilian capoeira group Aché Brasil, who mix acrobatics, samba, breakdance and martial arts, both of whom will grace the Colston Hall at various times over the weekend.

WSF also has plenty to offer younger audiences, though. A quartet of children’s shows includes ‘Little Mysteries’ (Arnolfini, 7-10 July), in which Italian theatre troupe Teatro Kismet use song, mime and movement to reveal the rituals of traditional Italian bread making. ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’ (Tobacco Factory, 8-10 July), meanwhile, is a show for 8-year-olds and over in which award-winning Scottish company Puppet State adapt Jean Giono's environmental cult classic. And very young visitors to ‘The Light Garden’ (Tobacco Factory, 6-7 July) will be treated to a cinematic camping experience from dawn to dusk, led by animated pebbles to cinematic tents before they reach a smouldering ‘campfire’ and illuminated switches to control the weather. Away from the shows, there’s plenty for kids to get stuck into, too, with workshops in Brazilian drumming, puppet making, storytelling, movement and music, slam poetry and capoeira. And there’s free entertainment from a stage in Anchor Square, with performances every day from 11am-5pm including circus acts and street performers from Circomedia, Youth Dance and Bristol Institute of Modern Music, while local performing arts troupe The Big Act will be hosting a Flash Mob Choir on Saturday.

So far, so eclectic and appetising. But does Bristol really need another festival? “Bristol’s festival scene is second to none,” acknowledges Becky Chapman, WSF’s festival producer. “What makes us different is that we have our sights set firmly on bringing in young and new audiences for the performing arts. We’ve promised to make the festival affordable for children, schools and families and that means tickets to world-class shows in a major venue costing just £6.50 – half of what you’d normally expect to pay in some of these venues.

“A recent report quantified the enormous economic, social and cultural impact of the Edinburgh Festivals. England needs more investment in festivals in order to reap these rewards, and an international festival means the reach and impact has the potential to be even greater. Over the next few years, we’d like World Stage to become a place for people making shows for young audiences to see new work and meet other practitioners.” But it’s not, she stresses, a children’s festival. “It’s a festival for all audiences. We want to show that world-class performing arts is excellent and entertaining for everyone, regardless of age. You don’t have to put categories on it.”

“When I came back to live in Bristol, I looked around and saw that there wasn’t really anything with the format of the Canadian festivals I had been running,” adds Colin. “Bristol has many fabulous community-based arts festivals, but nothing that promises the best from around the world for younger audiences.” So, Colin: how would you sum up this year’s World Stage Festival? “Four days in Bristol of world-class world entertainment for everyone, wherever they live, whatever their age.”

WORLD STAGE FESTIVAL TOOK PLACE FROM 6-10 JULY AT VENUES INCLUDING THE COLSTON HALL, ARNOLFINI, TOBACCO FACTORY THEATRE AND BRISTOL OLD VIC. FOR REVIEW CLICK HERE.

Copyright Steve Wright 2011