Gulbenkian 50th Anniversary
The Gulbenkian celebrates its 50th anniversary with a music programme that celebrates the past but hails a new future
Led Zeppelin, The Stone Roses and U2. No, it’s not the line-up of the most epic rock festival this summer, rather it’s a list of the great and the good to have graced the stages at Kent University, and specifically the Gulbenkian theatre, in Canterbury. Yeah, seriously.
Built in 1969, the campus venue has played host to monsters of rock, pop, comedy and theatre, all without having to check its ego at the stage door.
This summer, it celebrates its 50th anniversary with a programme of music events that will transport visitors to the year of its opening – a significant time in modern history.
Throughout June, the Gulbenkian will run events celebrating music and the arts under the concept Radical Roots and Dangerous Ideas.
“The theme is all about how young people can change the world. How creativity, arts and culture can inspire change”
“We’re connecting 1969 and 2019,” says theatre director Oliver Carruthers. “There are lots of similarities with what was happening at the time in politics, radical ideas and protests. It was the time of the Vietnam War and the student rebellion in Paris, as well as Woodstock. We are looking at what’s happening with Brexit and climate change and there is a real connection.
“We have young people looking at our archives for footage and material from the local area, and we’re going to produce a festival with an exhibition and performances all under the Radical Roots and Dangerous Ideas name. The theme is all about how young people can change the world. How creativity, arts and culture can inspire change.”
Starting with a series of controversial films that were X-rated in 1969 (though obviously not any more), the celebrations from June 3-22 include a focus on all arts but particularly music.
T24 Drama Society introduces Ace Face, a brand-new play based on the Mods and Rockers era (June 10), while the Kent Sound Off is a Battle of The Bands-style competition from Glass Ceiling Productions in which the winners will bag valuable studio recording time (June 14).
On Friday, June 21, the ‘New Canterbury Sound’ evening has been curated by local psych-rock group Syd Arthur, inspired by the music of the late 60s. The line-up includes the immersive and undeniable Evil Usses, Nelson Parade’s luminous and keyboard-driven psychedelic pop and the soft, intimate calling of The Selkies.
The evening will also see a partnership with Deal’s painfully cool Smugglers Records, who are hosting a Cafe Stage.
On Saturday, June 22, a celebration of the original Canterbury Sound will see the likes of progressive-movement originals Caravan and Soft Machine.
Curated by local musician and artist John Harle, the evening will witness the premiere of Zoom, a show written by Harle and poet Simon Armitage and performed live by Soft Machine and vocalist Nicole Tibbels. There will also be a performance by Jack Hues & The Quartet, featuring Syd Arthur.
With a 340-seater auditorium, a cafe space for up to 100 people and the adjoining Colyer Ferguson Hall, which can host gigs of 450 people standing, Carruthers is looking to use the festival as a platform to show what the Gulbenkian can offer the people of Kent.
“We really want to raise awareness of the offer we have available,” he says. “It’s a really open campus, open to the public with free parking at evenings and weekends.
“The marketing and messaging is to tell people they are welcome and that it isn’t just for students and staff. Most of our programming has a good public audience, but we want to develop that even more. We have a whole bunch of spaces, which allows us to do things of different scales and formats.
“We want to start doing festivals where all the spaces are being used at the same time. So we do bOing!, the family festival in the summer, over the August Bank Holiday weekend. We’re bringing a music stage to it for the first time this year and that’s in partnership with Music For Change, a charity based in Canterbury.
“East Kent is really diverse, with lots of different groups of people. There are lots of artists moving down here now, with musicians and creative people, as well as a rural and urban mix and younger and older generations.
“There is a really good opportunity here for Canterbury to develop a genuinely good music programme.”
For more information on the 50th anniversary at the Gulbenkian, visit thegulbenkian.co.uk