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A weekend of joyful chaos and community celebration: NOVUM Summer Festival

NOVUM Summer Festival
www.novumnewcastle.com
Instagram: @novum_festival

From giant dominoes to bird raves, a silent disco inside a light installation, massive bubbles and much more, NOVUM Summer Festival is set to bring fun, colour, creativity and no little joy to Newcastle city centre this August. Here, organisers reveal more about the spectacular event and how the itinerary will include something for everyone.

What on Earth is happening in Newcastle this summer?

Quite a lot, actually!

This August, Newcastle city centre is getting a giant domino run, a bird rave, a silent disco through the streets, giant swings, massive bubbles, dancing on giant moving blocks and enough free activities to fill an entire weekend.

Welcome to NOVUM Summer Festival.

From August 7–9, the city centre will become one giant playground as #NOVUM26 takes over with three days of performance, music, creativity, colour, joyful chaos and community celebrations.

NOVUM Summer Festival is a bold, multi-artform summer event.

You might accidentally walk into a brass band, colour in a giant artwork, dance through the city wearing headphones, discover a hidden installation inside an old building or find yourself watching hundreds of people fly underneath a giant parachute.

Most of it is free. Most of it is outdoors. And all of it is designed to surprise you and entertain.

Expect plenty of fun and creative experiences presented by regional, national and international artists.

Newcastle city centre as a stage

The city centre will become the stage, the gallery, the dancefloor and the playground.

You'll discover – and stumble upon – performers in the streets, installations in forgotten spaces, music around corners and opportunities to join in, make something, dance, play or simply stop and stare.

At the heart of the festival is a packed programme of free outdoor performances.

Internationally acclaimed company Motionhouse brings BLOCK, a breathtaking spectacle where dancers and acrobats perform on and around 20 giant moving blocks in a jaw-dropping combination of circus, movement and engineering.

Spanish street percussion company Posse arrives with drums, dance and infectious energy, while North East artists Lizzie Klotz and Luca Rutherford present Fabric of Us, an uplifting performance featuring movement, music and one enormous white parachute.

Elsewhere, mysterious travellers wander the city in Kamchàtka, playful rebels spread chaos in TRUTH, Curious Arts brings the joy of Wheelie Proud, and roaming bands soundtrack the city centre.

And yes, there really is a bird rave. Think 90s club rave meets giant birds.

Play is serious business

NOVUM is built around one simple idea: cities should be fun!

At Newcastle Civic Centre, Playing Out invites families to do exactly that.

Expect mud kitchens, giant swings, den building, face painting, bubbles, games, theatre and the chance to become an inventor for the day with Little Inventors.

Visitors can help create a giant collaborative artwork in Colour Outside the Lines, build paper cities, make flowers, join artist-led workshops and get stuck into creative activities throughout the weekend.

There will also be a dedicated space for teenagers, alongside performances and experiences across Northern Stage, Monument, Northumberland Street and Great North Museum: Hancock.

Drop in. Stay for ten minutes. Stay all day.

Play a bit. Make a bit. Watch a bit. Dance a bit.

It's your city. It's your weekend. It's your festival.

See the city differently

NOVUM invites all to look at Newcastle again.

A Room In Bloom transforms the High Bridge Works gallery into a giant floral landscape filled with fresh flowers and paper art.

You Are Here: NOVUM invites audiences to explore the city through headphones and sound, while The Secret Parade uncovers hidden stories, medieval Newcastle and forgotten corners of the city.

Throughout the weekend, colourful, Instagrammable installations, audio experiences and playful interventions will appear across the city centre.

One last thing

On Sunday afternoon, thousands of breeze blocks will begin falling across Newcastle city centre as a massive domino run.

Dominoes Newcastle, created by internationally acclaimed artists Station House Opera, will see a giant chain reaction travel through the city centre in one extraordinary moving artwork.

It's the headline finale of the festival.

Built by hundreds of volunteers and witnessed by thousands of people, it promises to be one of the North East's most ambitious public art events.

And it feels exactly right for a festival that believes cities should surprise us, and occasionally make us stop in the street and ask, 'what on Earth is going on over there?'

NOVUM Summer Festival takes place across Newcastle city centre from August 7–9. Most events are free. Further programme announcements will follow across July. For more information, visit the website at the top of this article.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by N Magazine .