Celebrating the arts at Magdalen College School Festival

From a small island in an otherwise cordoned-off corner of the city comes the MCS Arts Festival Oxford 2015 boasting more than 40 events between June 20 and July 5.

Excitingly, it looks as though the arts festival, established in 2009, is taking a stratospheric leap into the community this year, grabbing passers-by by their metaphorical hands and pulling them in over the institutional railings to make merry by Magdalen Bridge in a two-week celebration of art and culture.

Branching out from behind the aforementioned railings, MCS Arts Festival Oxford knows no bounds. The art world’s equivalent to Oxford Open Doors, the events have been programmed in venues throughout Oxford in an inclusive celebration of the city’s artistic energy that is, to my mind, precisely what Oxford has been crying out for.

Festival director Anne Cotton says: “Now in its seventh year, the festival is looking to the next phase of its development and aims to make an increasing contribution to Oxford’s cultural landscape.

“Central to our approach is to engage actively with different communities in the city through our community engagement projects, which aim to offer opportunities for the city’s residents, and especially its young people, to participate in cultural activities. We’re privileged to be working in partnership with a range of Oxford’s cultural institutions in offering this year’s programme, and also to be supported by grant aid from Arts Council England and by Oxford City and Oxfordshire County Councils and the University of Oxford, whose support is crucial in enabling us to offer a broad programme for the city.”

There is a vast array of music, art, drama, dance, film, talks, workshops and literature-related events… the list of high-quality entertainment goes on. There is, without a doubt, something to appeal to all ages and tastes from the youth programme, which has been designed with younger festival-goers in mind (suitable for seven-year-olds and older).

While the festival doesn’t have a theme as such, several of the events – such as the Medieval Day in Oxford Castle Quarter and the series of walking tours that take in architecture, poetry and literature – are united by a focus on Oxford’s heritage. MCS Arts Festival Oxford has also launched an emerging artists’ platform this year and is shining a spotlight on early-career talent from creatives such as debut novelist Alex Hourston, the UK’s leading improvised comedy group The Oxford Imps, and some of the country’s finest young comic talent in the shape of The Oxford Revue who will present the very best of their material from throughout the year before they go on tour to London, Cambridge and Edinburgh.

With events such as Motionhouse’s Choreography that will see the leading dance-theatre company teach the skills needed to create movement when making a piece of dance and Direct Roots: A Theatre-Makers’ Symposium, this is a festival that will appeal to everyone.

The symposium is a day of workshops, performances and talks developed specifically for emerging theatre directors, producers and theatre-makers.

It aims to create a space for exploration and celebration of theatre and story-making practice that may feed a cyclical chain-reaction providing the talent for next year’s festival. Such events mark MCS Arts Festival Oxford out as a festival that is as much about nurturing exceptional talent as it is about presenting it.

Anaïs Higgins, audience development co-ordinator at the festival, said.“I’ve deliberated with myself and the Arts and Crafts Day taking place in venues across Oxford on Sunday, June 28, is probably my top pick of the festival,”

Phantasm

“Arts & Crafts Day is almost another mini-arts festival in itself with over 20 different workshops taking place on one day.

“You can take your pick from a broad range of practices. There’s everything from paper cutting to Chinese printmaking. Most of the classes are only a couple of hours long so it’s a great opportunity to try something new and meet local artists as they teach you their craft.”

There are innumerable events and activities that are too good to miss and too many to mention here, but the one that has me dusting off my picnic blanket and will have me standing in line for tickets is the free outdoor screening of Mozart’s light-hearted, comic masterpiece Così Fan Tutte that will be performed by Garsington Opera and star Lesley Garrett in the idyllic setting of Magdalen College School’s grounds on the banks of the River Cherwell. Bliss!

Last year Poetry Live was met with rapturous applause from the festival audience, and consequently will play centre stage once again this year with internationally-renowned poet and president of the Poetry Society Roger McGough performing alongside the Arts Festival poetry competition winners.

McGough has written a special poem for the festival that sums up the fun and fabulous summer nights soaking up culture in this scintillating city: ‘Poetry in Oxford, deep amongst the spires Seen it on the posters and the festival e-fliers What a way to spend it, a dusk-filled Tuesday night See you there, I’m hoping, for some poetry-fuelled delight.’

GO ALONG
Magdalen College School Festival runs from June 20- July 5. All events require a ticket unless otherwise stated. For information visit artsfestivaloxford.org
Due to Tuesday’s fire at the school some events may be relocated