In 2015, we planned a large-scale, weekend-long Harvest Festival in Peterborough’s historic Cathedral Square. The festival celebrated the relationship between the city and its rural countryside, connecting people to the land and its associated Harvest rituals, whilst promoting local food and suppliers. Through a family orientated event, the festival also served to highlight ecological and social sustainability, including localism, food production, food waste/sustainability, agricultural education and collective responses to the land. It was a publicly engaging weekend of art and culture that reinvigorated and transformed the ancestral ritual of Harvest and attracted thousands of people into the city centre!
On Saturday 19 September, we welcomed a bustling food and craft market to St John’s Square in Peterboorugh, recreating the buzzing and vibrant markets that were held in Peterborough city centre for hundreds of years. Throughout the day bread making demonstrations took place in the square, along with a selection of musical and dance groups; from Morris, Molly and cultural dancers, to a variety of folk musicians. To kick off the evening’s proceedings, a folkloric ritual procession, including representative members and groups of the community, guided audience members into the Cathedral Square, and a mass public ceilidh will begin to take shape followed by some of the finest folk musicians!
Image credit: Chris Porsz
On Sunday 20 September, the food and craft market ran again from St John’s Square. At its centre, international artist’s Lucy + Jorge Orta, hosted a meal for 500 invited guests in front of the Guildhall in Cathedral Square – their first outdoor meal in the UK. Guests were invited via a host of Harvest ambassadors. This meal was made by locally sourced ingredients, including a large quota of the produce coming from the surrounding allotments.
Image credit: Chris Porsz
Over the weekend long Harvest celebrations, 10 UK newly commissioned visual and performing artists’ works were revealed; processions, sound installations and films-just to name a few!
Information about the lead artists:
Lucy + Jorge Orta’s collaborative practice draws upon ecological and social sustainability issues to create artworks employing diverse media, including drawing, sculpture, installation, couture, painting, silkscreen, photography, video and light, as well as staged ephemeral interventions and performances. Amongst their most emblematic series are: Refuge Wear and Body Architecture: portable minimum habitats bridging architecture and dress; HortiRecycling: the food chain in global and local contexts; 70 x 7 The Meal: the ritual of dining and its role in community networking; Nexus Architecture: alternative modes of establishing the social link; The Gift: a metaphor for the heart and the biomedical ethics of organ donation; OrtaWater and Clouds: water scarcity and the problems arising from pollution and corporate control; Antarctica: international human rights and freer international migration; and Amazonia: the value of the natural environment to our daily lives and to our survival.
Harvest Commissioned Artists:
1o Selected Harvest Artists – Aisha Zia, Arianne Churchman, Caitlin Heffernan, Charlotte Bosanquet, Eloise Moody, Faye Claridge, Matt Lewis, Redhawk Logistica, Robyn Woolston and Sue Shields.
METAL presents: Harvest 2015 from SPARKY FILM on Vimeo.
