As Dorchester Festival gets underway this weekend, hundreds of performers and thousands of festival goers will be flocking to the county town for five days of extraordinary African-themed events.
Pulsating rhythms will echo through the streets as singers, dancers and spectacular street performers bring the town alive on Saturday morning, followed by a grand parade with hundreds of children in stunning animal headdresses make their way past the African street market to Borough Gardens.
While singers, poets and performers continue through the afternoon at Town Mill Bakery, the focus moves to the Gardens where Afro Dance Group Grupo Lokito kick off a vibrant mixture of music, dance and performance. The spectacular Black Eagles who learned their acrobatic skills on the streets of Dar-es-Salaam make a special appearance, along with a group of gorillas and their intrepid comic explorer.
Sultry belly dancers, storytellers, street performers all join in as the day comes to a close with a headline performance at the Corn Exchange by the man who single handedly ignited the African music revolution in Europe when he first appeared at the Womad world music festival - Congolese musician Kanda Bongo Man and his extraordinary soukous band, who will be playing some of the tracks from their electrifying new EP.
On Sunday, the Festival in the gardens moves into a more chilled out phase with music, storytelling and cutting edge small scale theatre, before a special talk in the Corn Exchange by author Salley Vickers who will be talking about her new novel Dancing Backwards - a recent Radio 4 Book at Bedtime.
Headlining Sunday night is comedy sensation Gina Yashere at Herrison Hall, Charlton Down with a late addition to the programme - a stunning 45 minute set from double grammy award winner Lekan Babalola and his Afro beat trio. Lekan’s workshop on the Roots of the Blues had to be postponed to a later date - but we’ve managed to squeeze a set from his band into the start of our comedy night - it should be amazing,” said artistic director Sharon Hayden.
“As Gina is of Nigerian descent we thought it would make her feel at home to have a Nigerian musician playing before her.” The trio, who fuse African and English folk music, are Lekan on percussion, Kate Luxmoore on clarinet and Karen Street on accordian.
On Monday, the Festival showcases a fantastic selection of local bands, as well as a journey through Zimbabwe with the infectious music of Bulawayo. In the Corn Exchange, leading children’s theatre company Tell Tale Hearts present their new show for 3-7 year olds, Spacehoppers, before their appearance in the Kindergardens international festival of children’s theatre next month.
The weekend wraps up with a chorus workshop and premiere of a new Community Opera, the Cask of Amontillado and the screening on Tuesday of Comrades - the epic story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs filmed in and around Dorchester with many local people appearing as extras.
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