Norfolk & Norwich Festival has announced a new, free, hyper-local project running from May 8-24 – the 17 days across which the festival would have taken place this year.
Norfolk & Norwich Festival does Radio Local will be an hour-long live show each day at 3pm on Norwich’s Future Radio and online, hosted by live art collaborators and comedy duo Hunt & Darton. The show will celebrate everything about what it means to be local and will be built with, by and for residents of the county.
Radio Local had originally been part of the 2020 festival line-up, with the pair planning to broadcast from Norwich city centre for 24 hours straight and to work with communities in Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn and Diss before arriving. Hunt & Darton’s previous work includes their award-winning pop-up installation, the Hunt & Darton Café which has been presented at Tate Britain, Edinburgh Fringe and Latitude Festivals, and three cities in China with the British Council.
From the charmingly mundane to the quite extraordinary to the borderline ridiculous, Norfolk & Norwich Festival does Radio Local is a celebration of community, built with local people over the phone, via Zoom workshops and through online networks. It will respond to people and place, witnessing this unprecedented time and celebrating people’s boredom.
Daniel Brine, artistic director and chief executive of Norfolk & Norwich Festival, said: “We were gutted to cancel this year’s festival but we’re committed to doing our bit for the community, and in these difficult times we wanted to make sure we brought the people of Norwich and Norfolk some light cultural relief.
“Radio Local is our chance to celebrate the great work of our local key workers, to connect in a time when we’re distancing, and to think about the things which bind our community together.”
Alongside speaking to artists who had been programmed to present work at the festival, the show will offer survival tactics for isolation, boredom busters, remote food reviews, live reports and audio tours of homes. There will be intergenerational challenges, scavenger hunts and competitions. The deadpan presenting duo will be joined by their guest presenter Victoria Melody featuring the region’s best amateur stand ups to keep audiences laughing.
The show will also feature a legends slot, with the great and good from across the county sharing the tracks of their life, a roster of virtual first dates, agony aunting, Twitter based soap operas, phone ins and more.
Hunt & Darton said: “We feel privileged to have found a way to carry on making work in this adverse time. We are ridiculously excited to still be able make this show with you all, to bring a bit of silliness into our days, show off what Norfolk and Norwich folk have to offer, share our experiences in this bizarre time and to celebrate the amazing work that we all should have been enjoying throughout the festival.”
Norfolk & Norwich Festival does Radio Local is led by trainee staff, who work with the festival on a short-term basis to develop and learn new skills, supporting their professional development. Radio Local is one of several online initiatives the Festival is producing from May-June.
A full programme for Norfolk and Norwich Festival does Radio Local will be announced in due course. The show can be accessed via the festival’s homepage at nnfestival.org.uk or on Future Radio. Highlights will be repeated on BBC Radio Norfolk Monday-Friday.
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