Arcadia Spectacular, known colloquially as Arcadia, is a performance art collective that repurpose ex-military machinery, and other industrial components, into large scale high-capacity performance installations and dance music stages.
The group is often associated with Glastonbury Festival where they have had a permanent place since 2014, and hosted some of the biggest electronic artists and DJs including Fatboy Slim, Calvin Harris, Carl Cox, and The Chemical Brothers. [1] Their installations have toured internationally, including previous appearances at Boomtown, Bestival, and Ultra Music Festival.
The group was founded by Pip Rush who previously worked alongside his brother, artist Joe Rush, at the Mutoid Waste Company and Bert Cole, formerly master of the world's largest tent, the Valhalla. [2] [3]
Their first collaboration, the Afterburner, debuted at the Glastonbury Festival in 2007 after being built in a cowshed. [4] Subsequent years of the festival saw the Afterburner's refinement until 2010 when three HM Customs and Excise scanning units were attached as legs, becoming the Spider. [5] This first incarnation of the Spider stage led to two more years of adjustments until they became two separate installations. [6] In 2012, the Spider became a permanent main stage at Boomtown. [7]
In 2014, Arcadia were given a permanent area at the Glastonbury Festival, [8] and exhibited at Boomtown for the last time. [7] In 2014, The Afterburner was featured at Rhythm & Vines, New Zealand, [9] and the new "Resistance" area at Ultra Music Festival, Miami in March 2015. [10]
In September 2015, the Spider performed to 24,000 people over two nights in Queen Square, Bristol, at a celebration of the city as European Green Capital that year, [11] [12] where for the first time, the pyrotechnic flame system ran entirely on recycled biofuel. [13]
In 2019, Arcadia launched Pangea at the Glastonbury Festival, [14] a new stage centred around a re-purposed 140 ton dock crane, previously installed at Avonmouth Docks in Bristol, to 'take over the sky' above audiences. [15]
At the 2024 Glastonbury Festival, the mainstay Spider stage was replaced by a new Dragonfly stage, repurposed from a former Royal Navy helicopter that was previously deployed in the Falklands War. [16]
The Arcadia Spider is a 360 degree structure built from recycled materials. Its 'legs' are HM Customs and Excise scanning units, its 'eyes' are spy plane engines, its 'claws' are log grabbers, its 'body' is built from helicopter tails, and its DJ booth from jet engine blades. [17] The DJ booth is suspended above the dancefloor. [18] The Spider has several built in flame cannons able to shoot 50 foot flames, [19] and is rigged with lights and lasers across its 'body'. Its 'arms' fire jets of CO2, it is often given a 'skin' by video mapping and it is surrounded by a 360 degree sound field of PA speakers. [20]
Pangea is a 360 degree hemispherical stage with a re-purposed 140 tonne dock crane at its heart. [21]
The Afterburner is a 360 degree structure built from recycled materials. Its central focus is a flaming spire with multi level, radial platforms extending to a 360 degree inward facing sound system.
The Bug is a 6 wheeled, amphibious stage built from submarine moulds and an Alvis Stalwart. The stage appeared at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics. [22]
A collaboration with New Zealander Carlos van Camp, The Lords of Lightning features two performance artists atop podiums containing Tesla coils that generate 4 million volts of electricity.
A series of Victorian style lampposts entwined with recycled vehicle exhausts that give a treelike appearance. The lampposts are rigged with flame canons that emit jets of fire which are often synchronised with musical beats.
Norman Quentin Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist for the Hull-based indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a UK number-one single with their a cappella cover of "Caravan of Love". After the Housemartins split up, Cook formed the electronic band Beats International in Brighton, who produced the number-one single "Dub Be Good to Me". He then played in Freak Power, Pizzaman, and the Mighty Dub Katz with moderate success.
Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.
The Glastonbury Festival is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most summers. In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and other arts. Leading pop and rock artists have headlined, alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas. Films and albums have been recorded at the festival, and it receives extensive television and newspaper coverage.
Sir Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis is an English dairy farmer and the co-creator of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place at his farm in Pilton, Somerset.
Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her 2002 film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.
Bonnaroo is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Since its first year in 2002, it has been held at what is now Great Stage Park on a 700-acre (280 ha) farm in Manchester, Tennessee. The festival typically starts on the second Thursday in June and lasts four days. It has been held every year except in 2020, when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2021 when it was canceled due to excessive rain from Hurricane Ida flooding the campground. The main attractions of this festival are the multiple stages featuring live music with a diverse array of musical styles including indie rock, classic rock, world music, hip hop, jazz, Americana, bluegrass, country music, folk, gospel, reggae, pop, electronic, and other alternative music. Musical acts begin Wednesday evening for early arrivals, continue throughout the festival, with performances starting each day around noon, and some stages entertaining festival goers until sunrise.
An afterburner is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and combat. The afterburning process injects additional fuel into a combustor in the jet pipe behind the turbine, "reheating" the exhaust gas. Afterburning significantly increases thrust as an alternative to using a bigger engine with its attendant weight penalty, but at the cost of increased fuel consumption which limits its use to short periods. This aircraft application of "reheat" contrasts with the meaning and implementation of "reheat" applicable to gas turbines driving electrical generators and which reduces fuel consumption.
The Mutoid Waste Company are a performance arts group founded in London, England by Joe Rush and Robin Cooke in collaboration with Alan P Scott and Joshua Bowler. It started in the early 1980s, emerging from Frestonia's 'Car Breaker Gallery'. They are probably best known for their recycled art installations at Glastonbury Festival and refer to themselves as the Mutoids.
Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by releasing early grindcore and death metal records between the late 1980s and mid-1990s. Its roster has since diversified into more mainstream guitar music, working with bands such as Rival Sons, the Temperance Movement, Blackberry Smoke, Scarlet Rebels and the White Buffalo. The company also hosted the 'Earache Express' stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2017 and 'The Earache Factory' at Boomtown 2018. The label's logo is a homage to Thrasher magazine, as Pearson was a skateboard culture enthusiast.
The Frisbee is a type of pendulum amusement ride featuring a circular gondola that rotates as it swings back and forth. Riders are seated on the gondola facing inward or outward, depending on the model. On some models, the entire pendulum makes a full 360 degree swing.
A sky lantern, also known as Kǒngmíng lantern, or Chinese lantern, is a small balloon made of paper, with an opening at the bottom where a small fire is suspended.
Bang Face is an electronic dance music event that has been taking place at various venues across the UK and Europe since 2003. Referring to itself as a Neo-Rave Explosion, Beatport announced on 18 April 2024 that its newest genre was Neo Rave - "Coined by BangFace, Neo Rave encompasses the harder styles of dance music". Starting as a monthly club night in London, it has grown to include an annual weekender, a boat party on the River Thames, as well as guest shows at festivals such as Glastonbury. In 2013 Bang Face celebrated its 10th birthday with DJ Mag stating Bang Face [maintains] "the perfect blend of old skool rave and the finest contemporary leftfield sounds". In March 2015 Bang Face reached the milestone of 100 events by hosting the Weekender at Southport Holiday Park. Resident Advisor asked the question "Is Bangface the most unique rave out there?" and described it as a "Neo-rave utopia". In 2023 Bang Face celebrated 20 years of events with the 2023 Weekender headlined by Orbital.
Bestival 2010 was the seventh installment of the Bestival, a boutique music festival held at Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight. The festival, organized by Rob and Josie Da Bank and their crew, was held over the weekend between 9 September and 12 September 2010. It was voted the best major UK festival in the UK festival awards. This is the first time it has won the major festival award, rather than the medium-sized festival award. Each year a fancy dress theme is announced; 2010 was the year of the fantastic and so festival goers dressed in fantasy outfits. The festival boasts its own radio station called Bestival Radio. The station was broadcast on-site, played music and kept listeners camping at the festival up-to-date on news and events over the weekend. The first acts were announced on 4 February.
Gentleman's Dub Club are a British dub band, originating from Leeds, Yorkshire.
A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons, such as a proximity to a major metropolitan area, huge construction project, or attractive climate.
Green Ginger is a European theatre company based in Bristol, UK and Wiseppe, France that creates adult-oriented theatre and films featuring puppetry. Founded by Terry Lee in 1978, the company regularly tours its theatre productions throughout the world. Green Ginger collaborates with major arts organisations, including Welsh National Opera and Aardman Animations and its members teach at University of Bristol, Bath Spa University and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Boomtown is a British music festival held annually on the Matterley Estate in South Downs National Park, near Winchester, Hampshire. It was first held in 2009 and has been held at its current site since 2011, and runs during the second week of August each year. The event features a diverse lineup of live bands, electronic music DJs, MCs, speakers, and theatrical performers across many genres.
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Martyn Roberts is a New Zealand lighting and set designer and photographer, and founder of the arts collective afterburner theatre productions. Roberts has won 14 theatre awards. The afterburner production Dark Matter, conceived and created by Roberts won Best of Fringe at the 2017 NZ Fringe Festival Awards.