All in all it’ll be fantastic festival of street art
MORE than 100 performances by international artists will be staged for free in public spaces near Sinan Mansions during a four-day street art festival next month.
The StArt Festival 2019 will include stilt walkers, drama, music, dance, puppetry and mime in the plazas and streets around the historical villas between May 1 and 4.
The performances will feature 32 artists from nine leading art troupes from both home and abroad. Close interaction with the audience will be a major highlight of the event, said Li Haiyu, the mansions’ general manager.
A show entitled “CORdas” from the Spanish flamenco dance troupe Dansacio will invite the audience to join in. The audience can also follow a “headless man” in another show called “The Suit” and walk across Sinan Road to nearby Fuxing Park.
The shows will be held at 16 sites among the historic villas and the park for residents and tourists during the Labor Day holiday, Li said. There’s no fixed schedule as to when the performances start.
The mansions in Huangpu District feature more than 50 historic garden villas in various styles.
The annual event began in 2017 and attracts over 10,000 visitors and millions of online views every year, Li said. In response to rising demand, this year’s event has been extended to run from 11am to 10pm every day with “non-stop performances,” Li said.
A grand puppet parade “Gueule d’Ours” (huge bears) will be held at night when glowing bears will appear in the downtown region.
The slogan of the event is “All in All Free,” because the organizers want to host an open art festival that allows the public to enjoy world-class performances while enhancing their understanding of art, said Li.