Special Plug-In: Uproar Festival
A festival showcasing some of the best up-and-coming performing arts talent is taking place in Liverpool this April.
Uproar Festival will host a three-week long display of Liverpool John Moores University’s Drama departments talents and passion projects. There really is something for everyone across the event, whether it’s a gritty drama or a musical sing-a-long you’re after, Uproar Festival have made sure everyone is catered for.
So where did the idea for the festival come from? I spoke to Saff the production manager of the festival.
She said: “As part of our third year of our course, we are required to put on a festival at the end of term, and whilst we were discussing what we wanted our festival to be, there was an overpowering opinion that we wanted to make sure our voices would be heard.”
She added: “We toyed with a lot of different themes and festival names, but we landed on Uproar, which we feels perfectly captures the noise we plan on making!”
The festival will include 16 main house shows, ranging from comedies which will make you laugh your head off, all the way to dramatic performances which will hopefully really hit home to the audience.
All of these shows have been written, directed or devised by the third year students involved in creating the festival.
Also taking place concurrently with the Uproar Festival, will be the ‘Uproar Fringe’ which will see a collection of between 15 and 20 minute shows.
With entries to the Fringe coming from 1st year, 2nd year and 3rd year students, the Fringe promises to showcase an ‘exhilarating’ mix of genres, showcasing the wide variety of diverse talents across the course as a whole.
Other events will also be taking place almost everyday along side the festival including a karaoke night, stand up comedy event, table reads, coffee mornings, as well as the university’s own take on the popular tv show ‘Taskmaster’.
Saffron continues: “We’ve really ensured that we can cater for everyone and make sure that we can have a jam packed three weeks of entertainment.”
“For example we have a female only event running in The Florist, LiF( Liverpool Improvisation Festival) workshops taking place in the university’s Joe H Makin building.”
The team behind Uproar Festival are hoping that people who share the similar belief that the arts are a necessity, and not just a hobby, will be amongst those attend and know that by being there, they are giving their support to the rise of the emerging artists who’s works are on show.
Saffron finished by saying:“It's not just about watching performances or going to events; it's a chance to meet like-minded people and connect with those who share a passion for arts, and also those in the industry. I think people should attend if they want to be entertained, and if they want to be a part of something really special.”
“We have some first class shows happening, and a fabulous range of events - so I suppose the question is, why wouldn't you want to attend?”
Uproar Festival takes place from April 12th to 27th. Whilst of the shows and events within the festival will be ticketed, all tickets are free and available to everybody through Ticket Source.
Links to purchase tickets will be provided at a later date through both the festival’s website and their social media platforms.
Covered by, Megan Kay