Warwick Student Arts Festival (WSAF)
Encyclopedia
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
. It was founded by Steve Pretty (then Societies and Student Development Officer sabbatical for the University of Warwick Students' Union) in 2004 with the aim of showcasing and celebrating all aspects of student art. It features a programme of events including plays (both published texts and student-written), musicals, dance, film, orchestras, choirs and bands, with a very heavy emphasis on collaboration across genres and art forms. All these events are free to attend, and the festival receives financial backing from both the Warwick Arts Centre
Warwick Arts Centre
Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. It attracts around 300,000 visitors a year to over 3,000 individual events embracing contemporary and classical music, drama, dance, comedy, films and visual art.Warwick Arts Centre comprises six...
and the University of Warwick Students' Union
University of Warwick Students' Union
Warwick Students' Union, also known as Warwick SU, is the students' union for the University of Warwick, in Coventry, England.-History:The Students' Union developed in tandem with the University and has existed since 1965...
to ensure the festival can keep this free ethos. Alongside One World Week
One World Week
One World Week may refer to:*One World Week , a UK development education charity and associated annual events, founded in 1978*One World Week , a student event at the University of Warwick, UK...
and Go Green Week, WSAF completes a series of annual student-run festivals at the University.
Warwick Student Art Festival 2002
The Warwick Student Art Festival was a forerunner of WSAF. Held in 2002 it included a campus wide programme of performance and art including installation, painting, sculpture, live art and theatre. As well as providing a testbed for many of the ideas which would later inform WSAF it also coined the distinctive WSAF SPLAT logo. The festival included performances in several venues including the Piazza, The Students' Union, the Humanities' quads and Tocil Wood.WSAF 2004
The first ever WSAF ran from 20 to 24 June 2004, and featured over fifty events. These took place in a number of venues including the Piazza, Students' Union and Studio Theatre within Warwick Arts Centre. Other events also took place around campus such as Rootes Field. The festival also allowed Warwick TV to display a number of student created films on a large screen. The festival was claimed to be the "largest student arts festival in Europe."WSAF 2005
The second year of WSAF again utilised the same venues and took place between 19 and 23 June 2005. The Piazza gained a larger stage than that used in the previous year and more events took place than in the previous year.WSAF 2006
WSAF 2006, from 18 to 22 June, featured over 80 performances spread over many venues including the Piazza, The Students' Union and The Studio, with other shows taking place in more unusual venues around the Warwick campus. WSAF, in collaboration with Warwick Student CinemaWarwick Student Cinema
Warwick Student Cinema is the student run cinema at the University of Warwick, operating out of a 312 person capacity lecture theatre, and is currently the only UK film society with the capability to show 70 mm film...
hosted an outdoor film screening on Tocil field of Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American comi-drama animated film written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin who, along with a regal tang called Dory , searches for his abducted son Nemo...
. Other notable events included a prog-rock-style concert featuring the University of Warwick Symphony Orchestra
University of Warwick Symphony Orchestra
The University of Warwick Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in the University of Warwick music centre in West Midlands, England and is composed mainly of university students, together with some staff and members of the local community....
and student band Replica X, and a performance from a student company from MIT.
WSAF 2007
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
in collaboration with Warwick Student Cinema
Warwick Student Cinema
Warwick Student Cinema is the student run cinema at the University of Warwick, operating out of a 312 person capacity lecture theatre, and is currently the only UK film society with the capability to show 70 mm film...
on Tocil field. For the first year the festival hosted a music concert in collaboration with Love Music Hate Racism
Love Music Hate Racism
Love Music Hate Racism is a music-oriented campaign based in Britain by the Anti-Nazi League and Unite Against Fascism. The campaign involves concerts aimed at spreading an anti-racist message...
, featuring Babyhead and The King Blues
The King Blues
The King Blues are a punk band from London, England, credited for fusing ska and folk together with influences from punk rock and hardcore punk. Tariq Ali described the band's sounds as 'rough, radical music that should unsettle the rulers of this country. A new generation of musicians are...
. There was also a 'Mad Hatters Tea Party' run by the Arts Society and Craft Society. Again venues included the Piazza, Students' Union and the Studio, with one-off shows occurring elsewhere on the Warwick campus, including a lift in the Humanities department. Despite torrential weather, only a few events were cancelled and audience numbers still remained high.
WSAF 2008
Over 80 events took place in WSAF’08 across a breadth of spaces making full use of the campus environment. The Piazza once again served as the festival’s traditional focal point, and was harnessed for large scale performances which entertained crowds of several hundred. These included concerts from all the university’s orchestras and several slots for Band Soc, a “Shakespeare-in-the-park” style production of The TempestThe Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
, Revelation Rock Gospel Choir, Bollywood and jazz dance shows and Beats and Pieces, a spectacular breakdancing competition with crews from around Europe.
The Arts Centre hosted a mixture of classical and experimental theatre in the studio, including a production of Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot, Get Treasure, Repeat and new student writing including the sell-outs Quest,Tech Crew: The Musical!, Nineteen and sketch show An Evening Without Dignity. In the cinema, alongside our own student-made films, we collaborated with Warwick Shootout to cross-market our events and incorporate their competition screenings and awards into WSAF. The arts centre foyers also hosted exhibitions and hands-on creative workshops, including second-hand book sculpture and a “big art attack” in the style of TV personality Neil Buchanan.
The Union was used to host wet weather events shifted from the Piazza, and boasted a varied selection of events in its own right, including student cabaret, a showcase of student–designed videogames, musical theatre productions, and poetry readings. WSAF also began a collaboration with the university’s new CAPITAL Centre, hosting several small-scale theatre productions in its intimate box space. Other events – such as a roaming late night production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, watched by over four hundred students – made full use of less conventional performance locations.
WSAF 2009 (SPLATfest)
The 2009 festival was rebranded SPLATfest (Student Performance, Literature, Arts and Theatre) and due to rebuild works taking place across the campus it took a radically different form. The main venue for events was a big top tent that was erected on the Maths Field. The tent contained 2 stages (BIG and BABYsplat) which allowed performances to be run back to back. As part of the rebranding operation a greater emphasis was placed on Literature and the festival was headlined by an appearance from literary figure AL Kennedy.Once again Warwick Arts Centre hosted a combination of Dance, Theatre and Student Writing with highlights including Edinburgh previews of Boy in Darkness by Curious Directive
Curious Directive
Curious Directive is a British Theatre company. The company is an ensemble of directors, producers, actors, bio-medical scientists, choreographers, writers, video artists, technicians, composers and designers, founded in 2008 by University of Warwick graduates....
and Quest, The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged) and Dealers Choice. The CAPITAL centre also hosted plays including Tape and Seven Jewish Children.
The event was brought to a close with SPLATtacular Spectacular which was a concert celebrating collaboration amongst societies. Chamber Choir and Latin and Ballroom went Back to the 60s and Symphony Orchestra and Classic and Modern Dance interpreted The Storm
Symphony No. 5 (Tchaikovsky)
The Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was composed between May and August 1888 and was first performed in St Petersburg at the Hall of Nobility on November 6 of that year with Tchaikovsky conducting. It is dedicated to Theodore Avé-Lallemant.-Structure:A typical...
. The tradition of performing in unconventional places continued with the Dance and Drum Parade and Nick: A Tragicomedy on Five Benches which took place along the banks of the lake.
WSAF 2010
The planning for WSAF 2010 is already underway!This year the Festival will run from Friday 25 June - Monday 28 June 2010.
In 2010 the ethos of the Festival was laid out in 3 initiatives:
• Celebration
WSAF takes place in the final term of the academic year. It will embody a sense of celebration for the end of exams, the beginning of Summer, and, in broader terms, the creativity and diversity of the Warwick student body.
• Involvement
The Festival will strive to involve all students and staff from all departments. Young people in the wider community; welcoming them to campus to be entertained, informed and inspired. Fun, free and local events for Warwickshire and Coventry families. Not only for them to watch, but also to take part in. Real collaboration between students and the community will be driven by the Family Day, involving local schools and youth groups to express their artistic talent.
• Innovation
Creating a flagship Student Arts Festival for Warwick and other Universities. Promoting fresh, creative and daring work in the arts field. Fostering long-term relationships with sponsors, donors and partners on and off campus.
WSAF2010 will have a heart and focus. 2010 will create a celebratory atmosphere where people enter the site and feel proud that they are part of a community that is so rich in culture, talent and collaboration.
"The Warwick Student Arts Festival is coming! The first and largest student run festival of its kind, WSAF is now in its 7th year. This June it is back like you've never seen it before. Expect to see campus transformed into a vibrant hub of creative activity; a place to celebrate the end of academic year, welcome the beginning of summer and witness the impressive artistic talents and cultural diversity of the Warwick student body.
A programme of free events will be held in a variety of venues at the heart of campus, with something to cater for all tastes. The programme also includes a specially developed Family Day on Sunday 27th which welcomes members of the wider community to the University as both performers and audience members. Highlights of previous WSAFs include a night-time promenade performance of A Midsummer Night´s Dream, an international break-dancing competition, an open-air cinema and a number of other theatre productions which went on to receive 4 & 5 Star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe. This year will feature equally exciting and innovative work and never-before-seen collaborations from some of Warwick’s biggest and best societies. So, get into the Festival Spirit! WSAF 2010 is on its way!"