Showzam! Blackpool’s festival of circus, magic and new variety is promising to be bigger and better than ever before when it returns in February with some acts showcasing world premieres!
Plans are now well underway for the event which returns for its sixth outing from February 15th – 24th. With £99,000 funding from Arts Council England, exciting new shows are being added to the already packed programme.
Two of the contemporary shows benefiting from Arts Council funding will be based in the Winter Gardens Olympia with the third element forming part of the festival’s street theatre and Showzam! organiser Marketing Blackpool is delighted with how the plans are panning out.
Managing Director Natalie Wyatt said:
Showzam! promises yet again to provide audiences with an eclectic mix of entertainment. This is already an amazing event offering audiences of all ages a great variety of shows, theatre, comedy and magic. But with this extra funding from Arts Council England our visitors are being offered something new and different.
In The Olympia, The Invisible Circus will perform a new show specially commissioned for Blackpool. Titled The Last Waltz, this immersive event will see the audience completely involved as they wander through a series of installations set in an arcade with seaside promenade-style frontages. Performers entertain from the rooftops while the crowd experiences the interactive environments of the booths below before the scene gradually unfolds to reveal The Palace of Dreams finale spectacle.
Meanwhile in the Baronial and Renaissance Suite, Spymonkey presents their part illusion, part horror and part blockbuster movie, Spookshow. The popular entertainment mash-up from 1930s-1950s America mixes live action, film, animation, mentalism, puppetry, illusion, hauntings, hysteria and horror.
And if it’s street theatre that inspires you, Arts Council England is also funding Wondertours – a free comedy walking tour of Blackpool and its rich entertainment history. Discover the truth behind the legends and re-live the highs and lows of centuries of Golden Mile glamour and guilt.
Showzam Producer Professor Vanessa Toulmin, from the University of Sheffield, added:
This is a great opportunity to blend Blackpool’s wonderful, historic past with a modern twist working with the UK’s leading theatre, arts and circus companies. We have all fallen in love with Blackpool and have created site specific shows which celebrate its wonderful history and the future.
Lots of the Showzam! events are free and tickets for all shows are available through the Showzam! website, Blackpool Tourist Information Centre and the Showzam! venues.
For more information about Showzam! go online to www.showzam.co.uk or call 01253 478222. You can also like Showzam! on Facebook or follow them on Twitter: @showzam.
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