Brouhaha International

Interview with Giles Agis of Brouhaha.

Well Giles what do you have planned for this years festival?

At Brouhaha International we have four main areas of work: Merseyside International Street Festival, Community Outreach work, Events Packages and Information Services. This festival is going to be 15 days; the largest and biggest festival we’ve ever held. We are trying to set up a number of different community-based festivals, concentrating on local artists. Our big push is to provide local employment opportunities, whether it is sessions over weeks or local contract work over a period of months; and to provide international work as part of their development, concentrating on developing the next tier of diverse artists in Merseyside. Why fifteen days instead of eight? It’s an important year for the city, that needs to show to the judges of the bid. We have had more funds from the Arts Council and a number of artists volunteering and getting paid for producing projects; so all those things culminating with the increase in community fundraising, has led this to becoming possibly a big explosion of culture.

The festival starts with two days of carnival. I use carnival in its widest form, a global form and rather than just a Carribean or Brazilian carnival, because we have such a diverse number of cultures in the city. Many of these communities have forms and styles of art leading into that 19th and 20th of July. First day will see the costumes and exhibited by seventeen different international companies performing on the streets. It will be a display of floor costumes, which we call the small ones, and the character costumes, which are the large costumes. During that day there will be a competition called the ‘Peoples’ Choice’ where the people of Liverpool will have to vote on the international groups. Then there will be a ‘do’ in the evening at the town hall with those votes counted and there will be money prizes.

We envision about 1000 costumes on the second day, which is the parade day, with a number of character costumes and percussion bands. Those will start at the Caribbean [Community Centre, Upper Parliament Street]. The second section will start from St. George’s Hall, parading down to the Pier Head. There will be four hours entertainment from local and international groups: best carnival queen/king for kids, best band on the road. After carnival some of the international groups will perform in local venues like the Palm House, the Bluecoat, and the podium in Church St. We have two days in Southport, animation in the Bluecoat, and Liverpool children’s festival from Pathways group, produced by themselves with the assistance of some older youth workers; and one-day hip-hop festival in Concert Square.

The countries participating are from: Malta, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Columbia, Brazil, Jamaica, South Africa, Palestine, Morocco. When they talk about the world in one city we have it all, in terms of the communities involved, and what we intend to do is link up the groups and get some reciprocal work with people across Merseyside.