Fierce! is an international performance festival (previously produced by Fierce Earth) that has taken place annually in and around
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
since 1997.
The launch of the 2004 festival, in May in Birmingham, England, was a group of hot air balloons that drifted over Birmingham's streets in the early hours of the morning playing soft music to "encourage dreams related to the music".
In May 2007, the artwork
Una White
Una White (died April 1997) was a Jamaican-British nurse who achieved posthumous notability when her name was placed, in high illuminated lettering, on Birmingham Central Library (since demolished) for three weeks, as an public art, art installa ...
was created as part of the festival.
Fierce! 11 was be held over the May Bank Holiday, 23 to 26 May 2008 and the artists taking part in the festival were be chosen by way of a public vote. The voting commenced on 20 March 2008 and conclude on 11 April 2008.
The
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre c ...
,
Warwick Arts Centre
Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. It attracts around 300,000 visitors a year to over 3,000 individual events embracing all types of theatre and performance, contemporary and cl ...
and
Birmingham Hippodrome
The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.
Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including vi ...
also collaborate heavily in the events.
In 2011 Fierce Festival reappeared after several years absence under the new joint artistic direction of Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison with the tagline 'Live Art. Collision. Super Local. Hyper Now.'
In 2013 Fierce launched Club Fierce XXX featuring New York rapper
Cakes Da Killa
Rashard Bradshaw, better known as Cakes da Killa, is an American rap artist who fuses genres of hip hop, house, and electronic dance music. He came to prominence in the " queer explosion" of hip hop music stemming from New York in 2012 and i ...
grime MC Roxxxan, and electro punk satirist
Quilla Constance
Jennifer Allen, known professionally as Quilla Constance, is a British contemporary interdisciplinary artist and lecturer, born in Birmingham, 1980.
Education
Allen graduated from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art , St John's College ...
.
In 2016, Aaron Wright became Artistic Director and the first festival under his leadership took place in 2017.
In 2019
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
Newspaper gave the Festival five stars and described it as 'a daring whirl of theatrical thrills'
[{{Cite web, date=2019-10-21, title=Fierce festival review – a daring whirl of theatrical thrills, url=http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/oct/21/fierce-festival-review-birmingham, access-date=2021-05-19, website=The Guardian, language=en]
The festival has also presented performances by numerous artists including Ron Athey,
Franko B
Franko B (born in Milan in 1960) is an Italian performance artist based in London, where he has lived since 1979. He studied fine art at Camberwell College of Arts (1986–87), Chelsea College of Art (1987–90) and the Byam Shaw School of Art (19 ...
, Gob Squad, Tim Miller, Forced Entertainment and more.
External links
New Fierce Festival siteOfficial Fierce! siteFierce! 11 siteBlog containing reports and pictures of Fierce! events in 2003, 2005 and 2006BBC: Birmingham Birdman, Fierce Festival - article by Ciarán Ryan
References
Festivals in Birmingham, West Midlands
Art museums and galleries in Birmingham, West Midlands
Arts festivals in England