We’ve talked about what it takes to plan and manage Greenwich Circus Festival, and we thought it would be interesting to discuss what goes into designing the weekend. There are so many different elements that go into the design of Greenwich Circus Festival, and each requires a different sort of thinking.
First up we have to design the artwork for marketing, which includes flyers, banners, posters, and digital media; because the festival is designed for everyone and includes lots of different workshops and shows, we have to make sure our media appeals to everyone the festival is aimed at.
Next up is sound, with 5 productions to work sound for, there’s lots of music to collate! Emails are sent back and forth between our youth class trainers, adult students, and professional performers - confirming tracks being used, if they need editing, and music cues in the acts. From there we look at if the show is being compared, or if we need music in-between each act to keep things moving during rigging changes. When putting music in between acts we have to ensure that the track flows naturally from the previous to the next - which is sometimes difficult when there are two very different tracks.
As the festival draws closer we start looking at lighting, similarly to sound, it all starts with emails. Once we know performer preferences for lighting, our lovely lighting designer Charlie Hain begins to programme the lights for each show. Working with performer preferences, music, and theme for inspiration, each show is programmed to be easily run during the weekend of Greenwich Circus Festival 2019! When designing lighting for circus it is important to think about how the positions and designs of the lights might affect the performers, from affecting balance and focus, to ability to see rigging during important rigging changes; this adds another complicated layer to the lighting design.
For us, each part of designing Greenwich Circus Festival is an exciting part of building an incredible weekend - and we’re so excited to see it all come together in two weeks time!
You can get your tickets for the festival here - greenwichcircusfestival.org