A STAGE version of hilarious wartime sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo will mark the opening of this year’s fun-packed Exeter College Arts Festival on Wednesday (June 9).

While its cast can’t wait to ham it up as some of television’s best-loved comedy characters, dozens more students are busy adding final touches to their own events and exhibitions, also due to take place at venues across the city over the coming weeks as part of this year’s City & Guilds-sponsored cultural celebration.

Filmmakers taking part in the 48-Hour Film Challenge will have only two days to make music videos for local bands during the Festival’s Week One in preparation for a debut screening to peers and the public on Friday (June 11).

At the same time, dance students will be putting costumes and choreography to the test in dress rehearsals ready for their Spectrum showcase on Monday and Tuesday of the following week (June 14 and 15).

Stage Management students are used to being the people behind the scenes responsible for making those on stage glow. But next Thursday lunchtime (June 17), it will be their chance to shine through their lunchtime ESP sound and lighting demonstration.

Tuning up in time for their Summer Sounds gig at the Phoenix next Thursday night (June 17) will be some of the College’s music students, while more dance students will be getting into the swing of things in readiness for their Big Apple trip of a lifetime fundraiser on Friday (June 18), New York, New York!.

Also in Week Two, students and the public will be invited to engage in some cultural workshops during Wednesday’s Respect Day event (June 16) – a celebration of diversity.
For those who prefer arts of the brush and pencil kind to performing arts, Princesshay will be the place to go. It will be home on several days next week (June 15, 16 and 17) to the DiverCity Gallery exhibition, where students will be exhibiting and selling examples of their work alongside local professional artists.

If cabaret is the name of the game, they might like to head instead to the Bikeshed Theatre in Week Three of the Festival (June 21 and 22) where there will be plenty of fun and frivolity in The Variety Show, an assortment of acts to be performed in front of audiences seated at variety club-style candlelit tables.

National Award Acting Performance students are set to premiere some of their self-penned works back at the College’s own Centre for Creative Industries (CCI) theatre the same week, during the Working Title events (June 22 and 23).

Wednesday evening (June 23) will mark the official opening of this year’s Art & Design Summer Show. It will then run 10am to 4.30pm daily except weekends from the next day (June 24) until July 1. Also on the Thursday (June 24), visitors will be able to enjoy a Creative Arts & Media Installation on display all day in the CCI Theatre.

Rounding off the third week nicely on the Friday night will be Becky Critchlow’s Magic Carpet Auction (June 25), at which the Arts Management student from Exmouth will be raising money towards Magic Carpet, an arts charity for local adults and children with learning disabilities or mental health issues and their carers.

Running concurrently, the 2010 Art And Design BTEC Shows will take place between Thursday, June 24 and Thursday, July 8, with Year 1 and Year 2 BTEC diploma Art, Design, Media and Photography students’ work on display and available for purchase.

All events within the Festival programme will be open to the public as well as Exeter College students and staff, and while for many admission is free, others will require tickets in return for a small fee (£8 maximum) per person.

Arts Management lecturer Fintan Irwin Bowler, co-ordinator of The Arts Festival 2010 and also co-director of Exeter’s Bikeshed Theatre, says: “The Arts Festival traditionally allows our Media and Performing Arts students to showcase the skills they have been working on throughout the year to the public at large as well as friends and family, and we are very grateful for the support City & Guilds has given to this year’s series of events.”

He continues: “For many, the work they will be putting forward for the Festival will be the culmination of weeks, or even months, of hard work towards completion of their final-year projects. So the Festival will be both exciting and hugely important to them as they prepare themselves for their future careers or further progression within education.

“Particularly as a number of 2010 events are taking place off-campus, at the Phoenix, Bikeshed Theatre, and in Princesshay, the Festival is something which will serve the broader community as well as our students.”

Please click here for more information about what’s on during the Arts Festival