麻豆社

It is really starting to feel like City of Culture in Coventry!
Many festivals are at risk or have been cancelled this summer - but Coventry is bucking the trend and a pop up festival site with circus style tents has been built in the heart of the city centre. The site overlooks the Council House - It's taken three weeks to put together, it's taken 45 crew, 4000 square metres of astro turf, half a kilometre of lights and 30,000 steps.

The team behind the successful Edinburgh Fringe Assembly Gardens arrived just three weeks ago with spectacular tents and stages and have created a city centre oasis. The site will be a centrepiece for the city鈥檚 year of cultural celebrations and will run from 1 July to mid-October 2021.

麻豆社 CWR reporter Richard Williams got on site to get a preview on the day it opens.
Interviews with the events team that pulled the event together, Rachel Gibbon and Chris Kil, Assembly Festival's Artistic Director William Burdett-Coutts and Chris Cooper from Twisted Barrell Brewery and Director of Choir of Man, Nic Doodson.

Assembly Festival Garden will be a dynamic and celebratory entertainment, food, drink and events space. Performances will take place in the Spiegeltent; the Piccolo, a smaller 180 seat Spiegeltent; a treehouse that will look out over the site; and an outdoor venue in front of the Piccolo which can play to the entire audience in the Garden. The site will serve as a bustling hangout hub, and will play host to a mouth-watering selection of local food makers. The Garden will also host a box office that will serve both the Garden as well as all City of Culture events in other locations.

The Garden has been designed from the ground up to include covid-specific adaptations to ensure events run as smoothly and safely as possible. The Garden and performances spaces will have flexible configurations to align with evolving UK Government guidance. This will be combined with a number of measures including contactless payments and ticketing, increased ventilation and a robust contact tracing process.

There will be a series of spectacular productions spanning cabaret, circus, comedy and children鈥檚 shows that will call the Gardens home for the summer, as well as a selection of high-profile comedy and music gigs from well-known faces alongside rising stars. Assembly Festival Gardens will also provide a new platform for local artists and entertainers.

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