24:7 10 Years on
This year was an especially exciting year as the festival celebrated its 10th year and Saturday saw the a whole host of new and familiar faces come together for its 10th Birthday Party at New Century House, the venue for all this years shows and events. For me the party was a great chance to connect with everyone from the shows and find out how everyone had been getting on. Being the second day of the festival there was a definite buzz for the week ahead with many people swapping recommendations and timetabling in to catch each others shows. It was really nice to see how supportive everyone was amongst the various shows and to get to know people on a much more personal level having fleetingly met most of them whilst filming with Dreamscope. The night was also a great opportunity to catch up with the rest of the footies who had all been incredibly busy themselves from Georgie Edward’s stage management and hunt for gray lollypops for Tongue Twister (eventually shipped over from Germany!) to Sam’s dedicated hard work on an incredibly dynamic score for To the Dam. I also caught up with Harry who had been busy planning one of this years’ extras events ‘The Big Slam’ which consists of a spoken word battle between some of Manchester’s upcoming poets, writes and performers and looks to be one of the many exciting events he’s planning since recently moving to Manchester.
24:7’s official photographers Act iii where also in on the fun, hosting a dress up photo booth which was a lot of fun (photos available on the 24:7 Facebook page!). The evening was also a great opportunity to reflect back on 24:7s many achievements over the last ten years with a lovely speech by David Slack who gave thanks to the many theatre makers and volunteers who help make the festival such a success every year. For the event I made a ‘Happy Birthday 24:7’ video, which saw a whole host of supporters and contributors wish a big Happy Birthday to the festival as well as some brilliant singing by Peter Holden from Holden and Sons.Overall a great evening with great people and some very nice cake. Happy Birthday 24:7!!
Sophie – July 2014