Circus Street Winterland
Circus Street Winterland is a fabulously festive free event, coming to Brighton’s old Municipal Market
Cathedral Group is opening the old Municipal Market’s doors to people in Brighton Hove, offering a fun, festive and free event called Circus Street Winterland.
Every child who visits the Winterland Labyrinth – an alternative to Santa’s grotto created by Copperdollar, award winners of Brighton Festival & Fringe – will receive a free gift.
Visitors can watch dramatic dance performances from ZoieLogic Dance Theatre, presenting MurMur, a radical duet that packs a punch, challenges perceptions, and stuns audiences with its sheer physicality. These performances are in association with South East Dance: at 1pm, 3pm and 5pm.
Visit the Bell Tent Imaginarium by Periplum, where children and adults of all ages can enjoy a digital tour of discovery into Alice’s Wonderland.
Carnival and circus performances, Christmas decoration making, Christmas trees for sale and delicious hot and cold food and drink are also on offer. Stay tuned to the website: www.circusstreetbrighton.com to discover more and find out times of performances.
The planting of a mighty 14m Elm outside the front of the old municipal market building marked the opening of a new community space inside the warehouse and a programme of public events.
Cathedral Group and McLaren are leading development proposals for the Circus Street site in partnership with South East Dance, University of Brighton and Brighton & Hove City Council and are opening up the old market in the meantime.
Emma Jacquest, charity manager at Tarner Community Project, says: “We are thrilled to have somewhere new and exciting to hold our youth group activities – this is a fantastic opportunity for us to increase and diversify our youth events and develop some creative projects, including art and dance activities with young people in the Tarner area of Brighton.”
Martyn Evans, creative director at Cathedral Group, adds: “The old warehouse has been closed off to the public for a very long time and we want to enliven it again and get people used to being in this part of the city – and also to make the most of this extraordinary old warehouse building while it’s still here.
“We already have a queue of community groups and creative projects lining up to use the space and Circus Street Winterland is just the first of an exciting programme of events which we’ll be inviting neighbours and the people of Brighton and Hove to come and enjoy over the coming months.”
Jamie Watton, CEO of leading arts organisation South East Dance, says: “South East Dance is looking forward to a permanent home for dance on the site with development of The Dance Space and, in the run up to that, we welcome this access to a temporary space as it will enable us to start realising our ambition to ensure local people have greater opportunities to get excited and involved in dance.”
“We are looking forward to using the community space for a fashion show, photographic exhibition and for a film project next year,” says Professor Anne Boddington, Dean of The University of Brighton’s Faculty of Arts. “We see this is a great precursor to our new library and learning centre for the arts, to be part of the future development here, which will help the wider community access our extraordinary creative resources.”
The newly-planted elm tree, which has been decorated with lights for the winter, is an Ulmus ‘Lobel’, of which there are already several in the city. Brighton and Hove is home to the National Elm Collection, the largest collection of disease resistant elms in any city in the world, though it has been dramatically reduced by disease and the great storm of 1987 since it was started in Victorian times.
Ward Councillor, Cllr Stephanie Powell, says: “The planting of the 14m Elm marks a new beginning of much-needed regeneration of this part of Tarner.”
Dress up warm and enjoy the events at the free Circus Street Winterland.
Saturday 14 December 2013, Old Municipal Market building, Circus Street, Brighton, BN2 9QF, 12pm–6pm,
Free admission
