They say that a band's second album is always the hardest, the 'difficult second album', so I like to think of Merge 2011 as the 'difficult second Festival'. Once we've got through that, we should be ready to take over the world and be as all-conquering as [insert your favourite band's name here].
Last year's Festival involved just over one hundred students as participants, and this year we've been even more ambitious. The Festival is split across several host venues and now happens over four days. It's all been designed to allow any audience member to see just about everything on offer. You could also look at our lovely little website, www.mergearts.org.uk.
There's a lot of stuff, so have a look around. We've got theatre, jazz, classical music, poetry, dance, performance art, workshops, burlesque, visual art...and it's all about showing off Hull's artistic scene.
Like any good band leader, I should thank the band. The Festival needs several people working hard on it through the year, and those people are listed below. I'm grateful to all of them. Once again, the University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences has funded the Festival, and we're again grateful for their generosity in doing so.
The Merge band has also relied on our host venues for somewhere to put our second album; this year they are the Albemarle Music Centre, Fruit and the Ringside. We'd like to thank staff at each for their hard work and patience over the last year.
For Merge 2011 we experimented with some run-up events called EarlyMerge, which were hosted by the Haworth Arms, Pave, Hull's History Centre and the Ringside, while workshops have been hosted by Hull College – so we extend our thanks to them too.
Finally, can I thank you for coming along? I hope you find at least one performance or artwork that really makes you think and shows that Hull has artistic talent to be proud of. That would be a good legacy for this year's Festival.
Once again, thank you for coming – have a look around, see some shows, and I hope to see you for next year's Festival.
Richard T. Watson, Artistic Director
PS. Enjoy the album!
The Merge Arts Festival is:
Artistic Director: Richard T. Watson
Finance Director/Co-Producer: Alison Best
Technical Directors: Jon Cole & Adam Foley
Publicity Director: Rachael Abbey
Education Director: Zoe Hughes
Designer: Will Langdale
With special thanks to:
Professor Valerie Sanders and the University of Hull's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Sarah-Jane Dickenson and staff at the University's Department of Music and Drama
Chris Maynard and staff at the Albemarle Music Centre
Dean Shakespeare and staff at Fruit
Darren Bunting, Anna Fox and staff at the Ringside
Arike Oke and staff at the Hull History Centre
Staff at the Haworth Arms and Pave bar
Jamie McGarry
Lucy Thurlow, Hayley Nikolay and staff at Hull College
Simon Bedford and Hoipolloi Theatre
Keira Walker
Janet Pearce and Marianne Lewsley-Stier
Jonno Witts
Elizabeth Coombs
The Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn
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