Looping the Loop Festival
Looping the Loop Festival of performance takes place all around Thanet – that’s the three adjacent seaside towns of Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate – 23rd April – 5th May 2016 and again, later in the year, 15th – 23rd October.
If you’re here for a family holiday during either of those times – whether or not you are staying in one of our Broadstairs holiday lets – we think you will want to check out Looping the Loop!
The Festival is backed by Arts Council England and Battersea Arts Centre and brings what they say are world-class productions, as well as locally produced shows, to delight audiences of all ages providing some surprising and eye opening experiences!
Starting on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death Looping the Loop is proof that theatre is far from dead in 2016! In fact it’s fresh, ever evolving – and here for the taking across our beautiful Isle during these twice a year performance focused events.
The Spring 2016 season’s shows include:
The hilarious ‘Salty Sea Dogs’ street theatre team
World premiere of brand new comedy from award winning Will Adamsdale and company.
’12:10:15: Life and Death’ of a British Martyr – which pulls no punches exploring the female experience of war in an uncompromising and fiercely contemporary show by Thanet based writer, Clive Holland.
A fist pumping euphoric rave culture show from Paines Plough with an old school UK Garage Soundtrack!
A show Set in the championship ring at Ramsgate’s Hornets Boxing Club, and a ring within the fantastically retro Tom Thumb Theatre – which takes you in to the heart of a boxers world – and family.
A rehearsed reading of a new John Retallack play set in Margate, a follow up to the acclaimed Hannah and Hanna – now the two protaganists are grown and find themselves at Margate’s reopened Dreamland.
A show set in the wordless world of Vamos Theatre, the UK’s leading full mask theatre company – it’s 1966 get your beehive on for a bitter-sweet story of mistaken morals and broken hearts!
A wildly entertaining show by Touretteshero, Jess Thom, who’s unusual neurology gives her a unique perspective on life and makes her incapable of sticking to a script – her Back Stage in Biscuit Land was described as “Delightful” by Stephen Fry.
On 2nd May take the family to Pierremont Park in Broadstairs to the WildThings event, come dressed as a WildThing and see one of two performances of a magical show for little ones – Grass – a wonderfully quirky dance show by Second Hand Dance which uses performance, puppetry and projection to inspire children to look closely at the world beneath their feet, to get mucky and play!
There’s even what’s called a ‘Scratch’ event on 8th May, where local theatre makers will ‘scratch’ new performance ideas and storylines in front of an audience who can give their feedback and help contribute to the creation of potential brand new shows for the future – a must for anyone interested in a career in theatre, see how it gets made and be part of the process!
Looping the Loop is part of the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) led Collaborative Touring Network (CTN), which means that along with six other towns round the country Thanet audiences get to see really innovative and exciting theatre from BAC which they would probably otherwise only get a chance to see if they lived in London.
Intrigued? See the Looping the Loop website to find out more about all the shows described above – and more – as well as additional activities, such as workshops and talks and more great street theatre, all year round.
Oh and if you’ve stumbled across this post and now want to come to Thanet during the Festival. We offer lovely holiday homes for families and groups, check availability on our home page!