The four-year Ahead of the Game cultural programme parallels the national Cultural Olympiad, and launched on Olympic Handover Day in 2008.
The programme supports West Sussex’s commitment to a countywide celebration to mark the London 2012 Games, featuring a high level of involvement from young people, international partnerships, and has been developed with and presented in local communities.
A huge number of residents across the county have been involved in making and participating in ambitious and exciting cultural work over the last three years, and we are now entering the final year leading up to the Games, with preparations in place for the countywide celebrations to culminate in spectacular style in the summer of 2012.
Ahead of the Game cultural events and activities have included to date:
The Big Picnic: Seven Big Picnics took place across the county to celebrate Olympic Handover Day on Sunday 24 August 2008, with events ranging from cirus performers, a tea dance and a ceilidh to giant board games, global music and film screenings. Each picnic was linked by the arrival of a 4 foot baguette baton, which was carried in a marathon 180 mile relay by the Chichester Festival Youth Theatre.
Blue Touch Paper Carnival: Making carnival accessible through bringing disabled and non-disabled people together to plan, share and make top quality carnival. Our participants took part in the opening ceremony of the Island Games 2011 on the Isle of Wight and featured in sparks in the park – Horsham’s Carnival. Awarded the London 2012 Inspire Mark in 2010.
Whispering Woods: A large-scale choral project bringing together hundreds of singers from across the county to create a public music performance in the West Sussex landscape, for a promenade audience after dark. Tilgate Park and West Dean arboretum were transformed for Whispering Woods events in 2010 & 2011, with more to come in 2012!
Dromos Travelling Festival: A travelling family-friendly arts festival designed to arrive and perform in communities across the county, took place at the Hawth, Crawley and Coombes Farm, Lancing in the summer of 2011. Dromos is produced by a team of local young producers who are supported by experienced arts and events industry specialists. Awarded the London 2012 Inspire Mark in 2010.
The Child & The Magic: A spectacularly ambitious modern production of Ravel’s wondrous children’s opera. The research and development phase concluded in 2010, and now we plan to bring the production to life in 2012 in a circus tent in the midst of a magical garden, through a ground-breaking combination of a 35 piece orchestra, aerialists, digital animation and projection, large-scale puppets, mechanical structures, stunning imagery, and a mixed professional and student cast, choir, orchestra and children’s chorus.
The Seed: A large-scale interactive adventure based on an original story, told through a combination of site-specific theatre and a real life digital treasure hunt. The project has been developed over the past three years and will come to life in 2012 across and beyond the four ‘Great Gardens of Sussex’ (Wakehurst Place, Nymans, High Beeches and Borde Hill). The audience will become seed hunters, having to use their wit and guile to solve a hundred year old mystery.
To help achieve such a range of activities, Cultural Champions are being encouraged and supported to take a lead in local communities.
The cultural programme will culminate in the summer of 2012 with the Ahead of the Game Festival, featuring a host of high-profile cultural events programmed throughout the summer across West Sussex, including the realisation of all five major projects from the cultural programme.
* The Ahead of the Game cultural programme is coordinated by the West Sussex Arts Partnership, a partnership between West Sussex County Council, and the District and Borough Councils, and has been awarded a grant by Arts Council England.