Confluence
Festivals
As well as creating our own events, we enjoyed linking with a number of local festivals.
An invitation for Confluence to participate in a local arts festival seemed to provide a good opportunity to try a new, informal approach to work with Parents and Toddlers, through a music workshop session on the festival site. Unfortunately, our experiences with the 1999 Blandford Festival were disappointing. The workshops did not take place, due to lack of publicity, an unsuitable location and torrential rain. It became evident that the festival has become a divided affair, with 'classical' music events, indoor concerts and events, etc taking place during the week and in town rather than in the tented enclosure dominated by live bands. We felt in retrospect that, being in the tented area, we were attached to the wrong part. In the following year we hoped to redress this by appearing in the week's schedules.
In 2000 the Festival co-incided with BBC Music Live. We arranged that Karen Wimhurst would run workshops with local people to write new compositions which would be performed during the week of the festival by Watershed. This proved impractical, however, due to timing, and in the end we devised a Watershed concert that would prefigure a series of workshops.
Again the experience was disappointing, as publicity was again minimal and also the concert was scheduled against a performance by a group of popular local poets. BBC Music Live showed no interest in covering the event. However, those who attended were very impressed by Watershed and joined the next series of composer workshops.
Also in 2000 Helen worked with Fruit Salad, a young persons' theatre group based at Bryanston School to help them prepare music for their festival performance of The Tempest.
The Festival was abandoned in 2001 due to organisational problems and adverse media publicity.
As part of Christchurch's regular Local Ecology and Arts Festival (LEAF) over the late-May bank holiday weekend in 2001, Karen Wimhurst worked with children at Grange School (see Schools) to form a procession band to take part in an evening parade. This work would eventually be transformed into the River Reaction section of Silver Messenger (see The Confluence).
On May Day in 1999 Dorset Wildlife Trust held their first annual fair on Fontmell Down, a nature reserve on the Stour watershed with spectactular views across the Blackmore Vale. Confluence was invited to take part, and set up a stall with a difference: it took the form of a washing line, with watery facts, fiction and poetry printed onto t - shirts and towels. Karen Wimhurst assembled a 'scratch' band from local musicians to perform klesmer, a traditional Jewish music with infectious rhythms. The fair basked in glorious sunshine, and the music and washing line was enjoyed by all comers.
In May 2000, English Nature's national reserve festival, celebrated in Dorset on Hambledon Hill, invited Confluence to join in. Shreen Harmony, Mere's community choir, sang new songs which had been written by Helen Porter from their improvisation.
Confluence's contributions to Mere Literary Festival's Words and Music concerts in 1999 and 2000 have been enjoyable and successful. The first concert featured the first performance of Watershed in the catchment, alongside a one-act play by Festival director Adrienne Howell, and music from Shreen Harmony and local folk musician Paul Stone. Paul is also a member of Shreen Harmony, and composed a work for Watershed, as part of the new series of composers workshops organised by Karen Wimhurst in Shaftesbury. Common Ground honorary director Roger Deakin also appeared at the festival, to give a talk and reading from his already successful book on 'wild swimming' through Britain - Waterlog - published by Chatto and Windus.
A competition for young people to write poems inspired by the river, which would then be set by Karen for performance by Watershed, unfortunately had to be abandoned due to the small number of submissions. The poems that were submitted were entered instead into the main stream of the Literary Festival's poetry competition.
In 2000, Shreen Harmony and Shades of Blue came together in Words and Music. Mrs Howell commented "Shreen Harmony and Shades of Blue really got our Words and Music concert off to a great start with their excellent singing. It was so pleasing to have such a good audience to spread the word. People are still talking about how much they enjoyed the evening and those who missed it are kicking themselves - though I don't think we could have got anymore into the Lecture Hall.
Thank you for all your help in making an entertaining and successful event. The Link scheme (the scheme for local transport) are very grateful for the support of Confluence".
Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival
Following our participation in an environmental festival and lecture, and local products meetings arranged by the Local Agenda 21 officer of North Dorset District Council and the initial gathering to explore the idea of a celebration of the products of the Blackmore Vale, Confluence was invited to participate in the first Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival. We had also been in contact with Lynne Saunders, the Local Community Worker for the Sturminster area, for some time, keeping her up to date with our activities. Lynne organises, amongst many other things, a regular Community Lunch for local groups, and Darren Giddings (Confluence development officer) was invited to be guest speaker in July 1999.
The cheese festival was devised to raise the profile of the place and in particular the local cheese factory, a significant local employer whose main product - Sturminster cheddar - was nationally acclaimed, yet whose future as the smallest of the Dairy Crest producer was frequently under threat (a threat which became action in 2000 when it was controversially closed for good). This formed the core around which the profile of Sturminster itself, and its local dairy and food producers and retailers, could be brought to a wider audience.
Confluence's participation was based upon the important links between rain, river, flood, field, grass, cow, milk, cheese and of course people. We achieved a variety of things. Firstly, the 'washing line' successfully employed at the Dorset Wildlife Trust fair at Fontmell Down, was called back into service. We were given a prime location in the centre of the ground, around which a 'wagon train' of stalls and marquees were arranged. Members of the Confluence team were on hand all day to talk to interested people and answer questions about the project and our activities. Secondly, an unattended display of laminated panels was arranged in the community hall. Thirdly, a series of musical activities were co-ordinated by Helen Porter, including Cheese Games (see Parents and Toddlers), and the first appearance of the Cutwater Band.
Wimborne and East Dorset Festival
The director of the annual Wimborne Festival, excited by the work of Confluence, took on the theme of rivers for the whole of the 2000 festival, and revived several earlier Confluence projects.
Karen Wimhurst rearranged and shortened Downstream - that's another story (see Talkative River) for performance in Wimborne Minster, and gave a new performance of Dressing the Stone. The festival directors adopted the theme and spirit of the Fish Cabaret (see Cabarets), and devised the Undercurrent Cabaret, as an entertaining blend of music, comedy, poetry and satire.
As well as the activities directly inspired by Confluence, the other festival events were infused with the spirit of the two rivers: former television 'Likely Lad' Rodney Bewes gave a one-man show based on Jerome K Jerome's classic book Three Men in a Boat (a book that inspired a Stour-based tribute during the late 19th century); Bournemouth Jazz Orchestra gave a concert called Up a Lazy River, including a rare performance of Tony Kinsey's Thames Suite.
The Festival was lucky to secure the participation of renowned soprano Sarah Leonard. Karen was commissioned to write a new piece for her to sing - The Punt - which was performed in concert with Schubert's Trout Quintet on October 8th.
