FAB Fest Flashbacks

On Friday 20th of May, the Faculty of Arts Building had its official opening ceremony, with a day filled with festivities and so much fun – so much so that I was stumped at which activities to do! If you didn’t get to go or were wondering what was on, here’s a taster of what went down at FAB Fest!

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the day, so picking a favourite thing is difficult. But if I had to choose it would definitely be the Stage Combat Workshop. Fight Director Mark Ruddick, with credits from The National Theatre, Glyndebourne and even Marvel Studios (he worked on Captain America, how cool is that!), took us all through a fight routine step-by-step, showing us how to look like we were in a real fight for stage or on camera. I love acting and movement in general so I can’t lie – I was giddy the entire time. We went through different moves such as a shove, a punch, strangling and even getting kicked where it hurts the most (if you know, you know). Obviously, all of this was fake and was carried out in a way to ensure total safety, nevertheless, it was such a cool experience to have. If you hear me going around campus saying I got into a fight recently and you’ve read this blog, no you haven’t.

There were many other activities to get involved with during the day too, such as a Bridgeton Dance Workshop with Heidi Ashton – who had worked on the first season of the series assisting in the development and style of the dances, as well as a Print Making Linocut Workshop, a Poetry Workshop with Raymond Antrobus, and Roman Cookery Workshops too. There was a Virtual Reality Art and Music Studio, where many created art in virtual reality or even played Minecraft. Not only this but there was , a chance to have a go at animating, Language Lessons Teasers, a Songwriting Workshop with Ellie Gowers, a Beatboxing Workshop with James Botcher – all of these and so much more!

While all of this was going on, different people performed various arts throughout the course of the day on the Agora Stage. A saxophone group started off the morning and many followed them with things like song renditions from different musicals, hip hop and kpop dance performances and more. The talent on display was absolutely breathtaking. Performances were also taking place outside on the Senate House Stage where we got to listen to different bands from rock and indie, to the Big Band; the weather was also perfect to simply sit in the sun and enjoy the music.

After soaking up the skill from all these creatives, I went ahead to another thing that I enjoyed, which was the book swap (which wasn’t really a book swap). Coming into the room, we were told the books were going to go anyway, so taking an extensive look around the room, I very heartily exited the area with around eight books for free! Needless to say, I love books haha. And from there I made my way over to ‘Meet Your Caricature’, where I got to have my caricature done for the first time.

And to end the day, my friends and I went to do the Pop-Up Escape Room: World Without Art. The time was set in the future when all the arts were banned, and we had to help the rebel group by finding a secret word – there were hidden clues all over the room to do so. My group managed to discover the word and make it out in 40 minutes with only one clue from the supervisor. I didn’t realise I’d have as much fun as I did as I’ve never done an escape room before, but it was such a great experience and I’ll definitely do more escape rooms in the future (I highly recommend you do too!).

All these activities I’ve mentioned aren’t even an exhaustive or extensive list. FAB Fest had so much going on from start to finish which made it truly a day to remember!