Ondatropica, The Fairey Band, & U-Roy added to Open East Festival

Open East Festival 2013

Saturday 27th to Sunday 28th July 2013
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, Greater London, E20 2ST, England MAP
£9.50 for adults and £6.00 for children, under 5s are free

Daily capacity: 50,000

Last updated: Mon 8th Jul 2013

Ondatropica featuring Quantic and Frente Cumbiero, The Fairey Band, U-Roy, Bomba Estereo, Jupiter Bokondji and Okwess International, Soul Caribbean, Viv Albertine , and Le Volume Courbe have been announced for Open East Festival, a weekend of music food, theatre, family fun and more to mark the first anniversary of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, taking place in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th July 2013.

They join the acts previously confirmed including The Waterboys, Seun Kuti and Fela's Egypt 80, Malian Supergroup of artists including celebrated duo Amadou & Mariam, Vieux Farka Toure, Fatoumata Diawara assembled by Cheick Tidian Seck. Plus appearing on the Caught by the River Stage will be Don Letts, Wire, Stealing Sheep, and The Rockingbirds. Unfortunately Toots and the Maytals has had to pull out due to injury.

In other news Sacrilege, the life-sized inflatable bouncy castle replica of Stonehenge by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller will also be on site.

The Fairey Band, also known as Acid Brass, the brainchild of Deller, is the unlikely fusion of Acid House anthems from the likes of KLF, 808 State with the sound of a traditional British Brass Band.

Hadrian Garrard, Director, Create London, said, "Create London and the Barbican are bringing world leading artists into Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to celebrate the one year anniversary of the London 2012 Games. Who wouldn't want to bounce up and down on an inflatable Stonehenge to celebrate the start of the opening of this amazing new park? We would encourage local people to snap up tickets which start from only £6 for children and offer amazing value for what will be a fantastic day of music, theatre, food and entertainment."

Bompas & Parr have been commissioned to create a spectacular finale which will be the climax of each day of the Festival. The duo are famed for creating dazzling spectacles including a scratch'n'sniff cinema, a walk-in cocktail, installing mini-golf and rowing boats on the roof of Selfridges, building a climbable mountain of chocolate and transforming Kew Gardens pond into a giant fruit salad. Details of the spectacular are being kept under wraps by organisers who aim to save the surprise.

Britain's chefs will be there too with The Real Food Festival creating a celebration of the best food producers in the country. Chefs including Cyrus Todiwala, Stevie Parle, Ben Tish of Salt Yard Group, Mark Jarvis of Blueprint Cafe and Kevin Gratton of Hix restaurants.

Street food vendors will also be on site including Big Apple Hot Dogs, Pizza Pilgrims, Horn OK Please, Mamma's Jerk Station, Community Kitchen, Hix Fish Dogs, Bhangra Burger with Dock Kitchen, Cafe Spice Namaste and Salt Yard Group.

Visitors will be able to sample beers from local breweries from within a 10 mile radius of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at The Ten Mile Beer Festival which will feature Sambrook's Brewery from Battersea, Meantime Brewing Company from Greenwich and The Five Point Brewing Company and Crate Brewery, both from Hackney.

Open East Festival will host a number of Games related performances including The Pandemonium Drummers and BMX riders from the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony will make an appearance as will the Opening Ceremony choreographer Kenrick Sandy and members of Boy Blue Entertainment. Graeae present Ted Hughes' The Iron Man Directed by Jenny Sealey, the Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony Co-Director, this classic modern fable features a colossal iron puppet taller than a double-decker bus.

For young visitors there's The House of Fairy Tales who will be presenting their Travelling Art Circus (with Gavin Turk's Space Pyramid), Discover Children's Story Centre, Charlie Dark on a hip-hop, poetry puppet adventure, The Hare and The Tortoise Remixed, and Joey from the National Theatre production War Horse. Plus a host of things to see, make and do.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park itself will have events and moving music performances programmed on the riverbanks and parklands with pop-up performances and participation throughout the day, culminating each day with a spectacular finale, details of which are being kept under wraps.

The best local talent will also feature with leading east London artists and organisations taking part in the day's activities, including Theatre Royal Stratford East, Barbican Drum Works, LSO Discovery and local bands from Continental Drifts. Christopher Green, will lead a mass, inter-generational sing-a-long with friends from the east London community and Rebecca Davies will host bespoke East End mass bingo games around her Beau Belles Ice Cream Van produced by Artsadmin. Also produced by Artsadmin is Handbag, Geraldine Pilgrim's celebratory dance performance which features great music, dancing and handbags and will animate the areas on the riverbanks, and provide a Floating Cinema.

Plus an Art Car Boot Fair, and Urban Bazaar, an art and design community, showcasing the best in UK made, sustainable, up-cycled, vintage and contemporary design featuring Alex Noble.

Day tickets are priced at at £9.50 for adults and £6.00 for children, under 5s are free.

To buy tickets now, click here.

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