Positive impact on Great Yarmouth's town will be boosted by 'Out There' performances

The effect on the coastal town is having a positive impact, attracting thousands of visitors from all over the region and beyond to attend.  Evidence suggests that the Out There Festival generated around £1,644,053 worth of economic activity in 2017.

Business in and around Great Yarmouth, as well as bed and breakfasts and hotels, will have their summer season extended by the increase in visitor numbers in what would have been one of their quieter weekends with children going back to school and the summer season normally drawing to a close.

Victoria Newsted, owner of Andover House Hotel located on 27-30 Camperdown Street in Great Yarmouth said: "We have seen an increase of 50% uptake in our rooms over the last four years of the Out There Festival weekend. It has had a huge impact on our business.  Our guests rave about 'Out There' which gets better year on year."

Over 50,000 visitors can expect the unexpected, weird and wonderful as Great Yarmouth will be buzzing with world-class street entertainment while the programme of events will be exploring current issues including cultural democracy, borders, environmental health and activism. 

"Out There is now the biggest free festival in the region and pretty much the biggest programme of circus in the UK regularly attracting more than 50,000 people. It is a truly intercontinental festival featuring a host of international and UK acts, many of which are UK and world premieres," says Joe Mackintosh, Chief Executive for SeaChange Arts and Artistic Director of the Out There International Festival of Circus & Street Arts.

He continues: "Seachange Arts is also the UK's foremost producer of new street arts and circus work, with companies from all over the world making shows in the Drill House year round - the UK's only full time dedicated creation space for street arts and circus with a worldwide reputation."

He says: "With activist groups like Extinction Rebellion employing creative tools such as performance and large-scale installation art to get their messages across, we've been inspired to revisit the history of outdoor arts and its place within wider cultural democracy. In the spirit of the times, we've taken over a part of the marketplace and dubbed it the Liberty Zone; a carefully curated collection of shows exploring threads of democracy, oppression and revolution. We once again work with our associate artists, Cocoloco whose exuberant performance about flamboyant dictators, Surrender will lead this newly created nation state."

The Saturday Night Spectacular this year is also of huge significance and not to be missed. Thank You For Having Us is the result of ten years of cooperation between SeaChange Arts and French street art titans, Générik Vapeur who have formed a collaborative performance with the brilliant and young UK company, Gorilla Circus. The performance is the first major large-scale outdoor show made by a UK and French company for about 25 years.

Press release issued by SeaChange Arts, September 10, 2019