Summer fun for Children and Adults, Time Travellers, Art & Performance Lovers, Walkers and Environmentalists
Jurassic Coast Earth Festival 2012: a festival which will celebrate England’s only natural World Heritage site through a summer of events in small towns and communities all along 95 miles of East Devon and Dorset’s most beautiful coastal areas from Exmouth to Studland Bay.
From 4th May to 9th September, the Earth Festival 2012 will reveal the wonderful world of dinosaurs and fossils, music and arts like never before, with a 5-month programme of over 30 inspiring events including the world’s most innovative new ride, Onboard’s Jurassic Airlines, which takes you flying and swimming with dinosaurs.
Fossil Festival
For CHILDREN there is the Fossil Festival, 4-6 May. This is the sixth annual event, which now has an international reputation and draws around 14,000 enthusiastic children, adults, artists and earth scientists to explore our distant past in the glorious setting of Lyme Regis’s Marine Parade and Charmouth’s bountiful beach. This year the theme is Discovering the Earth.
Also for CHILDREN is the animated, life-sized Travelling Pliosaur Cinema. A team of puppeteers, artists and engineers has created the Pliosaur, a 35ft long puppet replicating the enormous pliosaur whose jaw was found recently in Weymouth Bay and which now resides in the Dorset County Museum. Children climb inside the pliosaur and find a cinema. And the Story of the Jurassic Coast will be told, with Natural England, at the Durlston Festival.
For Time Travellers
There is Onboard: Jurassic Airlines’ time machine. Step onboard this 747 simulator and, during a 15 minute flight, you will be whisked 185million years back in time to fly with pterodactyls, cruise along the Jurassic Coastline and plunge into the waters of the Jurassic seas to encounter ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs and maybe the odd ammonite might swim past the window too. Then back into the skies again for a flight around planet Earth to see some of the other spectacular natural World Heritage Sites like the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon. This is truly innovative technology made possible by Richard Hartnell of Hartnell Creative and will have its first flight in Lyme Regis on 4th May, where it will stay for a few days before moving to Weymouth where it will be during the Olympic and Paralympic sailing and windsurfing events.
For Music Lovers
Renowned entertainers Robyn Hitchcock and John Hegley will perform A Celebration of Time in Lyme Regis’s Marine Theatre on 5th May. In addition four pieces of music have been commissioned under the title Coastal Voices. Over 1500 volunteers will be singing the pieces in Poole, Beer Quarry Caves, London and Weymouth.
Walkers and Hikers
Will enjoy the Rock Around the Coast trails. Jurassic Coast team member Sam Scriven is behind this project, which divides the 95 miles of coast between Exmouth and Studland Bay into 14 distinct guided walks, taking place on 14 Saturdays from 19th May and taking in some of the most beautiful scenery in the country along what is England’s only natural World Heritage Site. Charmouth and Lyme Regis will be running a programme of Fossil Hunting Walks from May to the end of September, and the Natural Seaton Weekend will be running walks along the Axe Estuary Wetlands as well.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS – The Earth Festival is founded on the fundamental lessons to be learnt from the past about the effects of environmental change on life on Earth. For example, all those involved in our events are striving to act with consideration for the environment and will be encouraging audiences to adopt the green pledge in their lives. In addition, the Jurassic Airlines flight, which in itself is low carbon, will reinforce this message during its journeys through space and time.
MEMO (the Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory)
This is an educational charity dedicated to building an ongoing memorial to extinct species and, when complete, will be a stone monument bearing the images of all the species of plants and animals known to have become extinct in modern times. Stone carving will go on at a variety of venues this summer. 26 and 7 Bones investigates the link between those whose lives along the coast are predicated on their hands (27 bones) or their feet (26 bones). Haven’s Big Green Weekend invites people to ‘Go Green’, celebrating wildlife, the natural environment and all things ‘Eco’. Stone Island is a programme of events that explores landscape through art, science and intercultural exchange; in two unique island venues at Portland. Axe Estuary Wetlands guided walks and the Natural Seaton weekend will introduce people to the wildlife along what is rapidly becoming one of the south-west’s premier wetland sites. And the Red Rocks Jamboree in Sidmouth will celebrate our World Heritage Coast with guided walks and fossil digs. Exmouth, Durlston and Lulworth will also be running their own mini-Earth Festivals.
Jurassic Journey
ART and PERFORMANCE LOVERS can enjoy the Jurassic Journey Ben Osborne and friends’ exciting fusion of photography, digital imagery, music, poetry and sculpture made from flotsam and jetsam. Battle for the Winds is a piece of performance art that starts in Lyme Regis on 6th May then spreads throughout the counties of the south west throughout the summer, culminating in a spectacular event in Weymouth for the opening of the Games on 28th July. The South African dance troupe, Desert Crossings, will be performing at the Exmouth Festival in August, and the Japanese dancers, Etude, will be performing at the Durslton festival in May. There will also be arts festivals throughout the summer along the Jurassic Coast including Lulworth, Purbeck. Lyme Regis, and Bridport.
These events are being made possible by generous funders including Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, RELAYS, Lyme Regis Development Trust and other donors. Earth Festival 2012 is also working with the Jurassic Coast Partnership (being part of its Creative Coast programme) and with Maritime Mix, the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad by the Sea.
Candida Blaker, Director of the Jurassic Coast Earth Festival 2012 said, “We have a thrilling programme of events which have been developed from all sections of the community and will take place in all types of venues, from the beach to museums, theatres, village halls and even the virtual world. The Earth Festival and the Fossil Festival have won the rare accolades of UNESCO patronage, and the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site will provide the thread that brings together volunteers, scientists, artists and other professionals, enabling communities to investigate, share and celebrate the earth sciences.”
Marcus Dixon, Chief Executive of the Lyme Regis Development Trust, added, “The Earth Festival will attract a local, national and international audience and will forge lasting collaborative partnerships that will encourage people to take an active part in understanding and safeguarding the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.”
The Earth Festival provides the opportunity for the wealth of artistic and cultural talent, and visitor attractions which already exist in Dorset and East Devon to come together and work symbiotically this summer along the entire 95 miles of Jurassic coastline; not simply with each other, but echoing the values of the Olympic and Paralympic marine events taking place in our area this summer.
Most of the events will be free and there will be something for everyone: visual arts, music, outdoor theatre, earth sciences, stone carving and cutting edge technological experiences.
http://www.earthfestival2012.org/
