PORT ELIOT
by Malgorzata Kitowski
…LITERATURE FESTIVAL
6.30pm July 21 - midnight on July 23
This year’s festival will see: Hanif Kureishi reading, and surprising us all; Arthur Smith’s extraordinary tour of the grounds; Alain de Botton unveiling architectural plans for his Philosopher’s Hut; Kevin Sampson and Helen Walsh on the anniversary of the Toxteth riots; Mick Brown talking about Marvin Gaye and Chris Salewicz showing a visual version of his new Joe Strummer biography; and Fiona Banner painting a male nude word-portrait. Also, the photographic artist Martin Parr talking and exhibiting his photographs of the interior of Port Eliot house, and number one bestselling author of The Farm, Richard Benson, who will be running a cheese stall. Barbara Hulanicki of Biba will have her own tent and will dress festival-goers in recycled materials and lace from the Port Eliot attics. She will be creating fashion, live. This will be the first time she has designed clothes since the dying days of Biba.
FILM TENT
The film tent, curated by James Flint, will feature Pawel Pawlikowski, Sally Potter, Andrew Kötting, Toby Litt, the Straight 8 film festival, Shooting People, The Mobile Cinema, Malgorzata Kitowski introducing PoetryFilms, Cornish Film, and a screening of It’s Nice Up North, a new ‘John Shuttleworth’ film by Graham Fellows and Martin Parr.
For the first time at Port Eliot, ‘the ultimate showgirl’ Immodesty Blaize will perform two acts from her wonderful Burlesque repertoire: the Reverse Strip Tease and Miss Blaize ‘n’ Saddles on an eight-foot rocking horse.
THE ICA
The ICA will present Roots and Shoots, a new-folk night on the Friday curated by Nick Luscombe and featuring live music headlined by Jim Moray. They will also have their own ICA Lounge on site showing film, selling books and offering visitors a chill out space for the whole weekend.
Artists Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis will create The House of Fairy Tales, using puppets to explore the beauty, horror and wonder of those timeless stories. Running the full length of the festival, there will be puppet and sculpture workshops for children and adults. Artist Wolfe Lenkiewicz and Nick Hackworth will curate a show entitled The End of Civilization in the house’s big dining room. It will feature artworks by more than twenty artists. Works on show will include a reworking by Jake and Dinos Chapman of Hell, which was destroyed in the Saatchi warehouse fire.
Also confirmed are: Hari Kunzru, Francis Upritchard, Michael Eavis, William Fiennes, Aisle 16, The Madrigirls, Simon Jameson, Justine Picardie, Graham Rawle, James Flint, Simon Munnery, Arthur Brown and his biographer Polly Marshall, the Library of Unwritten Books, Will Hodgkinson, Diz Watson, Lord Buckley, Guy Pratt, the Lily Fraser Band, Tom Baxter, Catherine King, Simon Jameson, Stone Soup storytelling, Jill Lamede, Andrew Clover, performance poetry from Apples & Snakes, Murray Young, Diana Johnstone, Steve Augarde, Rogue Theatre, Powerful Sam, Mirror Mirror theatre, Sally Crabtree, John Lycett-Green, Giro Playboy & Diego, Copperqueen (AKA Zina Saro-Wiwa), the Literary Consultancy, SaltPeter with their salacious songs, Talkaoke, DJ Matt Totnes, DJ Paul Taylor, Rosie Mockler’s belly dancing workshop, Luke Deacon, Andrew Lanyon. Gavin Pretor-Pinney will present the Second Extraordinary Meeting of the Cloud Appreciation Society; Alex Bellos will be returning, this time with an amazing Brazilian ‘forro’ band; Maria Alvarez and Rowan Pelling will present a homage to gothic women featuring the work of Kate Bush and Alison Golfrapp; Louise Carpenter and Harriet Vyner will give an eccentric, weird and wonderful tour of the house; Tom Shone will be previewing his first novel with a dramatic presentation on the Ha! Ha! Stage; and Michael Howells, art director extraordinaire, will return to dress the main stage.