Dundee WestFest is delighted, thrilled and ecstatic to have won a grant of almost £10,000 from Awards for All - this will help to make WestFest a vibrant, varied and safe festival. We're still looking for additional funding make the range of events we offer even more exciting.
Have a fun night out at Braes and help WestFest while you're enjoying yourself.
As part of WestFest Dundee University are offering a free 8 week course in Oral History from 26 April - 14 June which will help equip people to collect local memories and prepare an exhibition at Verdant Works, as part of WestFest. The course will be held in the Tower Building of the University between 2 and 4pm on Mondays
If you want to take part please telephone Susan Norrie on Dundee 384809 or email s.z.norrie@dundee.ac.uk
105 days to go and great things are happening. The target was to have a minimum of 25 events as part of the festival - a target that looks as if it will be easily exceeded - we are delighted by the number and quality of people offering to be part of WestFest.
Most recent additions include:
We've just been told that Dundee WestFest has been awarded charitable status, Scottish Charity SC041056
There will be a performance of one of Shakespeare's play in the Botanic Gardens on Thursday 24th June 2010.
During WestFest you will be able to record your memories of the West End for posterity in a specially organised 'vox box'. Your memories will then feature in future exhibitions and will help historian record and document the past in our city.
Derrick Lang, manager of Dundee Airport has offered to host an Open Day at the Airport as part of WestFest - it's likely that this will happen on Saturday 26th June. He has also offered exhibition space and to host an evening event in the Airport concourse.
Great news - Dundee Rep have just confirmed that they will offer four free drama workshops on Friday 25th June and on Saturday 26th June there will ba a site specific Youth theatre performance.
The WestFest team have been very busy behind the scenes - networking and talking to people who want to take part in WestFest or who are happy to support us. We've also been doing some of the less exciting, but very necessary, things which will help the Festival run smoothly. So far we're delighted with the support we are getting from organisations and individuals across the West End, but there's still lots more to do and more people to meet and places to go.
To date we have the backing of Dundee City Council, Dundee Rep, University of Dundee, Dundee Botanic Gardens, Mills Observatory several of the West End churches, West End Community Council and lots of enthusiastic individuals.
Over the coming weeks you will see changes to this website as the programme for the festival week develops. Already we have the outline for a wonderful opening event on Magdalen Green on Sunday 20th June, and we are working on plans for the parade and party on the final day - Sunday 27th June.
There is still plenty of time for you to get involved, so email your ideas, suggestions and offers of help to westendfestival@rocketmail.com. We also welcome offers of financial support - either business sponsorship or by becoming a Friend of WestFest, email us for details.
Came across The High Line the other day - it's a new park in New York which has been developed through the determination of members of the local community - it looks great and is a wonderful testament to community action. Read what Hamish McRae of The Independent says about it, specifically:
Taking the High Line – lessons in community action from Manhattan
The director of one of New York's great art galleries told me I had to see the High Line. The retired Wall Street banker asked if I had heard about the High Line. And the author with whom I was having dinner said we really have to see the High Line, so let's skip the coffee and go.
The High Line has been open three weeks. It is a public park built on the tracks of a disused elevated old freight railway line running down lower Manhattan, a couple of blocks in from the East River. You start in the Meat Packing District, you climb up the steps on to the newly laid walkway – past designer benches, plants and amid designer-dressed people – for a mile and a half north through the old warehouses and new loft apartments. The next section is being completed now, and while there are doubts about the final section, it may eventually be possible to walk right up to 34th Street, 30 feet above New York.
So New York has a new park in a formerly gritty, but now fashionable, part of the city. It is a classic story of urban regeneration, well-executed, that brings benefits to the local economy and community. But more than that – and very New York – it is also a tale of community action and philanthropy. This was not a municipal project, though it eventually it got the blessing of Mayor Bloomberg and city funding. But, in the early years, it developed when two residents hit on the idea, created a "Friends of the High Line" support group, raised seed funding and drove the idea forward.
There are several lessons. One is that new public space, done well, can revitalise a whole area. Another is that things like this can't happen unless there is political support, and probably public money. But another, which seems to be the most powerful one, is that the best ideas often spring up spontaneously in communities. The former consensus was that the elevated tracks were an eyesore and should be pulled down. But two people had a vision and the city has an exciting new park. Community works.
The committee for Dundee WestFest are:
Why have a festival?
Dundee's West End has some excellent resources, lively communities and much to offer both residents and visitors; a West End Festival would showcase these. The economic stimulus of a festival will be welcome to local businesses. Showcasing the area would not only bring in revenue it would stimulate new connections and therefore new initiatives. It would demonstrate Dundee's potential to host events by national bodies which don't yet perform here. But most importantly it would be fun, for residents, visitors and participants. Looking at successful local festivals in other cities Dundee's West End has all the right ingredients.
When? 20 - 27 June 2010
Timed to coincide with Dundee University's graduation when lots of visitors will be in the West End, and just before the schools finish for summer holidays.
Where?
At venues large and small, indoor and outdoor all over the West End.
Who can be involved?
The short answer is whoever wants to be involved - we have already had initial support from representatives of Dundee Rep, DCA and Dundee University. But a festival is also about community groups, local residents (from tots to great grannies and granddads) all getting involved and enjoying themselves.
What will be on?
What would you like to see? A parade? Street theatre? Indoor theatre? Street art? Indoor art? Exhibitions? Competitions? Music? Dance? Workshops? Sports? Gardens? Walks?
