Zip lines | Boomtown Games
A special commission from Boomtown Festival, and supported by Arts Council England. The BoomTown Games was the second incarnation of circus theatre production 'Athletes of The Night' which is the creative brainchild of circus director Bex Anson and Contemporary Circus Company Bassline Circus. The Boomtown games is a tale of gang rivalry and the battle for the top spot in a series of favela style 'street battles' The show was created and performed on a bespoke set which was built into the design of 'Barrio Loco' A large area that makes up one of 'BoomTown Festivals many zones. It was performed outside and all around audiences that were in the Barrio Loco arena.
The show featured some of the UK's most accomplished circus performers as well as starring Eva Lazarus as The Bandit Queen on team Bandit. Eva Lazarus is a Bristol based rising star in hip hop music and we (us circus performer types) were all enormously excited to be working with her in the intimate process of making a show.
The Bassline Circus family have had a presence at many a BoomTown for nearly as far as i can remember. Where what started out as a local grown festival that predominately was a bit of a party with our mates from Bristol has grown over the years its been running into one of the most epic critically acclaimed mind blowing large-scale festival gatherings in the UK/worldwide... to put it simply quite possibly one of the greatest shows on earth!!! BoomTown festival itself is a twisting sprawling city of surprises. Set design and build crews arrive months before the event begins to build the expansive happening. Turning fields into micro economies and other worlds born of the human imagination. Some of the larger venues in the boomtown city include an Aztec themed reggae stage in a natural amphitheatre basin called 'the lions den' that looks like some thing straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Bang Hai Palace, an epic rave temple neighbouring Chinatown (does what it says on the tin). Sector 6, a post apocalyptic nuclear power station, and an old town complete with a life size pirate ship 'The jolly Dodger'. Plus too much more to mention - including many micro venues containing unexpected intimate theatrical immersive experiences for audiences to enjoy. It's always exciting to be involved in BoomTown festival and this year I had the amusing role of Zip line Mistress for the production of the Boomtown Games. This job basically involved a lot of rigging and the designing of some flying systems to fly characters from the show out over the audiences and onto the stage where they would then battle for the approval of Comrade Jose (the leader of BoomTown) It was the first time I had been away on a festival job with my little boy around. My Sister Holly came to look after Aaron as Cihan was also working with the fabulous Bullzini Family, hire wire walking funambulists, in another part of the site. We were also both needed for the show nights of the BoomTown Games. BoomTown isn't the most child friendly affair particularly in the area of the festival where we were working so, just before the event opened to the public, i moved my caravan into a cosy little spot in the children's area and that made the show dates much easier for us all. Here is a showreel with a pretty accurate account of the show, otherwise enjoy some of my behind the scenes snaps, followed by a few from the shows Rx
