Published:
15:51 31 October 2021
More than 500 people literally burned their bad news at the Pyre Parade in Ipswich on Saturday night.
The event is part of art and culture days run by SPILL Festival, and aims to help people get cleaned up before winter. The festival ends Sunday night.
In the run-up to the SPILL, people wrote down their concerns and placed them in a picture that was carried noisily from the Ipswich Waterfront to Christchurch Park on Saturday night.
Robin Deacon, artistic director of SPILL, said the parade with over 500 participants is becoming an “Ipswich tradition”.
The mix of art and adventure has music, art installations and interactive events. One of them, Luminarium, had to close on Sunday due to the weather.
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Mr. Deacon added: “I have been blown away by the public reaction to the SPILL Festival, particularly their reactions to the public art projects and how they reacted to seeing art on the street and in some familiar but unconventional Ipswich spaces.
“Making art that is accessible and engaging for people to see and enjoy as part of their everyday lives is such an important part of SPILL’s goals and ethos.
“There is so much work and planning involved in making this festival. I would like to shout out not only to the artists, but also to all of them in the SPILL ‘engine room’, who work so hard behind the scenes to bring it all together.
“Thank you to our SPILL staff and volunteers, our tech team and venue helpers and to all the producers who make every event happen. It is so important that their great work is fully recognized.
“I’m glad to say it went really well. And after postponing the festival for a year due to the pandemic, it felt even sweeter to run it after the long wait we’ve all had.”
The festival was also a chance to showcase local artists with a third of all artists, either locals in Suffolk or East Anglia.
Sir. Deacon said: “This festival is also the springboard to the next and we are already looking forward to how we will build on the successes of SPILL, within and across the cultural communities of Ipswich.”
He said they hoped SPILL would return in 2022 and that they would tell the public more details early next year.