Activate Performing Arts’ biennial outdoor arts festival, Inside Out Dorset, returns to entertain and celebrate Dorset. From 15th to 24th September 2023, Activate Performing Arts will present completely free performances, workshops, installations, parades and more to audiences from the county and across the UK. Featuring international, UK and local South West artists at five sites in Dorset, Inside Out Dorset 2023 will mount two World Premieres and five UK Premieres. Find out more about the best of the fest here:
Festival Site 1 – Moors Valley Country Park and Forest, Friday 15th to Sunday 24th September 2023
Moors Valley Country Park and Forest is managed by Forestry England and Dorset Council. This 800-acre site caters for visitors of all ages and will see spectacular art installed through the site.
- Jane Pitt – Everyone Says…
Jane Pitt’s installation, Everyone says…, brings together a multitude of voices speaking a greeting and the word ‘tree’ in as many of the different languages spoken in the Moors Valley area as possible. Following face to face recording sessions at Moors Valley and in the surrounding area, the recordings will be played out digitally through speakers on stilts; mingling and interconnecting with each other and the sounds of the forest
Festival Site 2 – Poole, Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th September 2023
- Chloe Loftus and Rodney Bell – The Air Between Us
Critically acclaimed choreographer Chloe Loftus and multi-award winning Maori artist Rodney Bell – who performs in his wheelchair – explore our capacity to exist in harmony, with each other and with our environment. In this captivating outdoor aerial dance event performed mid-air, they almost appear like encircling planets, magnetically pulled by each other’s energy. Their partnership in this mesmerising performance celebrates equality and connection. - Working Boys Club – Serving Sounds Serving Sounds from The Working Boys Club is a multi-sensory sound installation that creates connection through music. The installation is an interactive work, playful and joyful with spaces for up to four people of all ages to interact with the bar. The Working Boys Club is made up of identical twins Jason and Adam Dupree, who make and create work by mixing their experience in the arts with their past lives as tradesmen.
Festival Site 3 – Wimborne, Saturday 16th September 2023
- Let’s Grow by Plunge Boom – The Vegetable Nannies
The Vegetable Nannies is brought to Inside Out Dorset by Let’s Grow and Ben Faulks, co-creator and presenter of the award winning CBeebies brand, Mr. Bloom’s Nursery. The Vegetable Nannies champions nature, nurture, wellbeing, and imaginative play; helping the Nannies look after their charming family of baby fruits and vegetables, combining horticulture and humour!
Festival Site 4 – Bere Regis, Wednesday 20th to Sunday 24th September 2023
The festival’s Wild Woodbury site at Bere Regis will welcome visitors to enjoy varied programming including workshops, talks and local food vendors for a festival feel. The site, which is owned by Dorset Wildlife Trust, is undergoing a process of rewilding and will provide a unique location for Inside Out Dorset to work alongside Dorset Wildlife Trust and Dorset AONB.
- Le G. Bistaki – Baïna[na]
Le G. Bistaki invite audiences to cross places and times in an astonishing choreographic and musical journey. This performance shows what happens when the characters are confronted with an abundant source of yellow gold. Leading them in turn to pleasure, ecstasy, jealousy, and finally to their loss. At the crossroads of circus and dance, Baïna[na] offers a timeless satire of our relationship with money and power. - Little Toller Books
This Dorset-based publisher who specialises in books about nature and rural life, will bring their Land Library on-site with a selection of books for young audiences to sit and read. They will also host Hannah Shuckburgh and Octavia Mackenzie, the authors of Archie’s Apple. This new children’s book is inspired by a true story of how one boy discovers a new variety of apple while out walking, and hits the headlines around the world.
Festival Site 5 – Weymouth, Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd September 2023
- Festival Finale Parade with Transe Express – Poupées Géantes
The finale weekend of Inside Out Dorset, held in Weymouth, will be a treat for all the family with three giant dolls in Transe Express’ Poupées Géantes gliding magically through the crowd with the voices of three opera singers transforming the street into an opera house. This spectacular parade of light and music is complemented by Les Tambours creating a powerful sound, combining percussive traditions from around the world.
All Inside Out Dorset events are free and visitors do not need a ticket to attend. Find out more about these highlights and discover even more events at https://activateperformingarts.org.uk/whats-on/inside-out-dorset/