Just So Festival have gone to Brazil

The Just So Festival 2016

Friday 19th to Sunday 21st August 2016
Rode Hall Parkland, Scholar Green, Cheshire, ST7 3QP, England MAP
£125

Daily capacity: 5,000

Last updated: Fri 22nd Jul 2016

Just So Festival have gone to Brazil. Organisers Rowan Hoban and Sarah Bird, are collaborating with producers in Sao Paulo to bring the Just So Festival to a Brazilian audience in October 2016 to mark National Children’s Day in Brazil.

Brazilian arts producers Maria Gama and Isabela Hadler Coudry who are based in Campinas and keen to replicate the Just So's style for a weekend camping arts festival solely dedicated to families.

Hoban and Bird are the Directors of Wild Rumpus who have a reputation for producing immersive, outdoor large scale family arts events in natural landscapes and set up Just So Festival in 2009 to create a weekend where families could enjoy world class outdoor arts

Following two years of talks and a site visit from the Brazilian team to Just So Festival this August, the organisers have packed their bags and flown to next year's Olympic host nation.

Hoban and Bird said of this month's Brazil visit, "We are very excited to be working internationally for the first time and that following lengthy planning Just So Brazil is now coming to fruition. Maria and Isabela’s passion and enthusiasm for the project reminds us of ourselves and we share many similar values around access and sustainability and a core belief that families deserve the very best programming and that the arts can change the way families see the world around them.

"We hope in future to set up a cultural exchange taking some of our British artists to Just So Brazil and vice versa. As well as attending lots of arts events and doing a site visit to where the festival will be held, we’ll also be visiting the Ministry of Culture in Brazil and the British Consulate. We can’t wait to learn more about Brazilian culture and festivals."

Isabela Hadler Coudry who will be the Director of the Brazilian Festival says she was wowed by visiting the Just So Festival this year and has taken much inspiration back with her. "When we found it we all fell in love with Just So: the chance of provide a surprising and inspiring environment outdoors to engage families together in the arts in a more relaxed way and with freedom to interact - how could anyone not love that? The chance to bring this to Brazil is a dream."

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey added, "It’s fantastic news that Wild Rumpus will be taking the Just So Festival to Brazil at a time when the global spotlight is firmly fixed on this exciting country for the Olympics next year. It's a wonderful opportunity to showcase the diversity of the UK’s cultural exports and creativity to the whole world."

Just So Festival is produced by Wild Rumpus CIC, a social enterprise, based in Cheshire, who organise large scale family arts events in wild natural landscapes. Current and past projects include Run Wild Child for Dig The City, managing the Northern Festivals Network, The Lost Carnival in partnership with So It Is and The Spellbound Forest in partnership with the Forestry Commission.

Katrina Michel, Chief Executive of Marketing Cheshire, said, "It's great news for Cheshire that this unique event has gained international recognition, it really demonstrates the strength of our creative arts scene and a fantastic showcase for an innovative and inspiring event."

The festival which returns again to Rode Hall Parkland, in Cheshire, next year over the weekend of Friday 19th until Sunday 21st August 2016 provides an experience where art, music and literature around the theme is embedded and entwined in the landscape. Expect also a lantern parade, midnight feast, festival opera, festival choir, kids dressing up, children's authors and illustrators, workshops, pottery, puppets, and more.

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Tickets for the festival, with an audience of 5000, are on sale from with early bird prices of £110 per adult and £45 per child for weekend tickets (£125 per adult and £50 per child after early birds have sold out). Under 3s are free..

There are no acts announced yet for 2016. The performances and activities on offer span a wide range of high quality arts and this year will include premiers of new commissions as well as works re-imagined for the outdoors.

The family festival experience includes family camping, nice loos, baby changing tents with changing mats and wipes, a breast-feeding boudoir, an area with electricity points for bottle warmers and sterilisers, and more.

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