A Question of Fierce
What would make Fierce Festival a unique experience? What would compel you to visit this festival not only if you lived in the West Midlands, but nationally and internationally? How does Fierce best nourish and support emerging practices in the West Midlands? How could this festival distinguish itself from others of its kind, not just in content but philosophically? How do you engage an audience with a shake-up after a fallow year? What would encourage committed audience engagement and new faces at the festival? And how can Fierce contribute to the ‘Birmingham Renaissance’?
Festivals are proliferating across a range of art forms; there is an appetite for them and perhaps the sense of ‘togetherness’ they can offer is in increasing demand as a corrective to the isolated and sometime lonely metropolitan existence that envelops us. In the realm of performance, live art and theatre there is an abundance of national-scale festivals across the UK. However, we observe that the actual range in terms of their programming models is surprisingly narrow. Further, it is increasingly the case that performance and music festivals operate as informal touring circuits; with one successful show passed like a baton from festival to festival. Although this may serve the reputation of a particular show, is this the role of a festival? These replications of content serve to weaken the specificity of the festival, its curatorial voice and its uniqueness. Festivals are in danger of losing the singular, eruptive, ‘break-from-the ordinary’ quality – by which they earn their name.
How we curate, deliver and communicate our festival and surrounding artistic activity will be driven by these questions? If you have responses, disagreements, suggestions – we’d like to hear them.
Tags: Festival, Questions, Regional, West Midlands
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:25 am
Hmmmmm, an interesting plea. Well I stumbled on this page after a nosey wander around twitter – and I’ve never knowingly been to a “Fierce” event, but, that might make me useful.
Once upon a time I was sat in a pub with some of Birmingham’s blogger-ati and made the mistake of saying “What on earth is Fierce?”. This was a real I’ll get my coat moment. “How could YOU NOT KNOW what Fierce is?” was the terse response. I believe at least one of the people around that table was involved in some way with the event.
I still don’t know what Fierce is. But, I’ll have a read around this site later, now I’ve accidentally stumbled across it. That kind of response didn’t encourage me to bother to find out more at the time.
This type of response is by no means unique. At one of those fruit-phone coffee mornings, I spoke with a chap who runs some kind of arts group. He later sent me a file promoting his group’s latest production and asked if I could help spread the word. Sure, I said, but do you have some kind of synopsis of this production to help interest those people not in the know. Apparently a title and his group’s name sufficed to entice people in. He never responded to my email – I never helped to spread the word.
Okay, I cite only two examples, but, generally, I get the impression with many arts-based events that the people involved are so into what they do, so passionate about their art, that they operate in their own little bubble of purpose and value. That’s not quite meant to sound like sarcastic criticism, I think it’s just an inevitable consequence of a group of passionate like-minded people coming together.
From the outside, Fierce is baffling. What is Fierce? Isn’t the URL “we are fierce” slightly inward?
The “we” isn’t important. The “me” is. Me…..Mr Audience who hasn’t got a clue what you’re about.
….I’ve just clicked on your About page. Wooo, let’s big-up you. So you had a man hang in a birds nest and got someone’s name in lights above Birmingham. Great. Why?
Why? is an important question. It’s not one I’ve known too many arts people ever like to answer. “Just because” is not an answer, nor any long winded bovine-excrement. And please, don’t tell me that I should know why – and mock me as some second rate idiot for not knowing (a very common response!).
Why are you doing this? Why is this of interest to me? Why should I switch off the tv set and come and do something more Fierce instead?
Why is especially important when you see your “primary funders” – who are basically the public at large, the tax-payer, ME.
Other than getting the organisers in the media, letting a person who wanted to hang off a building hang off a building……what had that stunt, sorry, art installation, got to do with me? After all, I unwittingly helped to pay for it.
My tones should not suggest that there isn’t a good reason – but I don’t recall it ever being clear – or even particularly attached to Fierce….I’ve only just found out that that was you! And there’s no “why” evidently clear on this website – about anything.
Rather than flame me, or ignore me because you don’t want my types at your festival anyway…maybe….just maybe…….you could try and sit in my seat and think…….why would I want to get involved in what you’re doing.
Why are you more tempting than anything else I could do with my time?
That’s not the same “why” as why you’re running the festival, but it’s a vital why to get more people interested. In my humble opinion anyway.
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Thank you for taking the time to explore our blog and thank you
especially for taking the time to write such a considered comment. More
than anything else we want our blog (like the live events we curate and
organise) to be a meeting place where people can respond to what they
see.
We like nothing more than a lively debate about what this stuff makes
everyone think and feel.
Fierce has much we would like to say on this subject of ‘why?’ – but we
wondered if anyone else reading this had any responses first?
March 26th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I love Fierce. I love Birmingham. For me my love of Birmingham is entwined with my growing awareness of Fierce. Whilst I was studying at Uni I was aware that Tim Miller was performing Spit Swallow Chew but wasn’t brave enough to go and actually and see an out gay man performing because someone might have guessed that I too was a gay man.
I got up close and personal with Chris Green in The Dressed locked away in the dressing rooms. As I gingerly stepped along the corridor towards the location of the performance the cast of Fame dashed past me whooping to their curtain up.
I stood, stared upwards at the Birdman alongside bemused shoppers early one morning. Feathers floating down towards my shining smiling face as the thought “Only in Birmingham” danced across my braincells.
Fierce does more than just play with spaces around Birmingham and the West Midlands. It burns those experiences into the concrete, into the walls of buildings. I like it’s fleeting nature, I like that it’s a bit of a seekrit, a bit weird and bit, you know, out there. (Wherever there *is*)
I’m sorry that the bloggerati didn’t answer the question of “what is fierce?”. My answer is a deeply personal, fragmented, kaleidoscopic view of the “festival” (but it’s so much more than just an arts festival, it’s transgressive, naughty, playful, weird).
For me Fierce has been a bit like an older sister who, when you’ve organised a party, helps mix delicious cocktails that get you roaring, steaming drunk, brings her impossibly cool friends to hang out in the kitchen eating directly from the fridge but hangs around the next morning to clear up, show you photos of yourself drunkenly dancing and makes sure your Mum and Dad never find out.
Fierce is my naughty older sister with purple hair and a tutu and silver doc martin boots who takes me out of myself, shows me a great time and makes sure I get home in one piece.
April 13th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I can relate to both of the above posts. I saw a Fierce programme a couple of years back and it sounded interesting but there was no context, no intro to say how to frame all this stuff. I don’t need a full WIIFM (what’s in it for me) aka Why? but I do need a bit more info as a newbie to get me out of my seat.
On the other hand the weird and wonderful things I read about in that brochure have stayed with me and I have talked about them.
Hopefully one day I will get to a Fierce event, now that I too have moved from London to Brum as the directors have done.
PS I don’t know if this is to do with the ballplay on the side bars but the comments box keeps jamming. You have to tab through the boxes to refresh it. Anyone else got this problem (or finding the balls distracting?!)