VAULT Festival Archives - North West End UK

VAULT has announced new London Venue and the Return of VAULT Festival for 2024

28Nov

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

VAULT has announced new London Venue and the Return of VAULT Festival for 2024

Making their highly anticipated comeback, the creators of the UK’s leading independent festival of live performance VAULT, have announced they are building a brand-new venue in the heart of London and that VAULT Festival will return in autumn 2024. Earlier this year, VAULT marked the end of its decade-long run of their flagship event VAULT Festival at its original venue launching the search to find and secure a new home. This new, multi-space venue will be a year-round, long-term home for VAULT, which will open its doors in Spring 2024 and will host the return of the much-loved VAULT Festival, as well as other new creative ventures, particularly aimed at supporting early career artists with more to be announced in the coming months. VAULT exists to platform work from underrepresented ar...

VAULT Festival celebrates a record breaking year as it closes its doors for the last time in its original home

21Mar

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

NEWS

VAULT Festival celebrates a record breaking year as it closes its doors for the last time in its original home

VAULT Festival marked the end of its decade-long run at its original venue, The Vaults on Sunday 19th March, bringing to a close a record-breaking year which welcomed more than 81,000 audience members throughout its eight-week run. The 2023 festival saw more than 4,000 independent artists perform 1,860 individual performances of 553 shows in 11 unique venues throughout Waterloo and South Bank, and featured 271 world premieres and 94 professional debuts, highlighting the colossal loss to the creative industries and audiences if VAULT Festival were unable to return for 2024 and beyond. Since it was created in 2012 as a one-off project, VAULT Festival has grown to become the UK's leading independent festival of live performance. VAULT Festival exists to platform work from underrepresented ...

20Mar

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Burnout – Vault Festival

Burnout starts with tackling the impact of flooding in a northern town, the effects of climate change, on the local people, the environment and the activists vying for solutions. The characters Bridgette (Bridge) an activist and Amara a 16yr old girl who pops out to get milk quickly finds she is enthralled and curious about the activist (Bridge). Amara is keen to share her thoughts and feelings of the impact of activism on the cause and herself. The play focuses on the call to action from audience participation which is encouraged and the carefully provoking dialogue. Photo: Tom Johnson Written by Nicole Acquah and directed by Caitlin Evans, this short play is about activism, and the reality of climate justice, the show exposes the burnout of the planet and burnout of the acti...

10Mar

By Jennifer LaishleyNo Comments

London

Kites – Vault Festival

Kites is a coming of age play about two girls growing up in the post-war era in Cork. The girls use their vivid imaginations to escape their childhood trauma! The play teases the idea that the girls are in love but does not directly address their sexuality directly. Tzarini Meylers’ script captures the magic of childhood. The play has a good pace, with narration that helps to give a sense of time and place and creates suspense for the audience. Tzarini uses the powerful imagery of kites to represent how the girls are tied down but desperate to fly away. The story does a good job of establishing the characters and friendship between the girls, ahead of diving into the deeper issues. By introducing the issues gradually, the play allows each story of the girl's trauma to resonate powerfull...

6Mar

By Marita MatarNo Comments

London

Rat King – Vault Festival

For about an hour or so, I was shaken by a journey of strong feelings being part of an immersed setting depicting an encounter one could relate to from different perspectives. Rat Kingwritten by Bram Davidovich, directed by Mark Hilton and played by Georgina Tack (Kelly) and Jacob Wayne-O’Neill (Jacko) presents the story of a girl, Kelly, clearly from better-off family who meet Jacko -which sounds as ghetto- a man ingrained in his condition of homelessness as she was running away from home. They soon start developing a bond that goes into an uncommon story notably in uncomforting ways; the girl’s persistence to ‘fix’ Jacko and drag him into arts as well as Jacko’s obsession with her. I was amazed by the actor’s performance and the staging of the piece. Choosing to set the audience...

27Feb

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

London

In PurSUEt – Vault Festival

At first glance, In PurSUEt - Eleanor Higgins’ one-woman show, is about a superfan and their obsession with Bake Off star Sue Perkins, yet, as the story unfolds, it is far darker and more tragic than you’d imagine. We follow an unnamed woman during a therapy session as she recounts her journey and love for Sue Perkins, from sneaking into backstage areas to drunkenly crashing a charity event for dogs. As her story progresses, it quickly becomes clear that the show goes beyond obsession and is a powerful tragicomedy which delves deep into mental health issues and addiction. Higgins artfully commands the stage as we see the ups and downs of her character, from self-assured and charismatic as she recounts her drunken nights out to lonely and self-destructive as her reliance on alcoho...

26Feb

By Jennifer LaishleyNo Comments

London

The Wedding Speech – Vault Festival

The Wedding Speech is a one-woman show all about a toxic mother-daughter relationship. Rose has been asked to do a speech at her mother’s wedding. But Rose is hiding in the toilets as she would prefer to tell the audience the truth about how her mother mistreats her. This is a story about co-dependency and different ways two people deal with trauma. The show reaches a huge climax when Rose finally gives her speech. Cheryl May Coward-Walker’s play deals with the toxic parental relationship issue in a setting that has a lot of room for comedic moments. There are serious heart-warming messages to take away, as Rose tells the audience her experiences and tries to comfort herself. But the stream of consciousness causes some pacing issues. There are a lot of key moments off-stage. This takes ...

20Feb

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

The Tinker – VAULT Festival

In the middle of the night, as a storm rages all around, there is a sudden knock on your door. A man in ragged clothes seeks shelter for the evening - do you let him in? Frank (Keon Martial-Phillip) and Evelyn (Lauren O’Leary) left the big city and moved to a distant rural home to take over the day-to-day running of the family whiskey business. The house is described as built for company, but it feels cold and impersonal. There are hints of love and warmth between the couple, but they are bogged down with distance and loss which threatens to overwhelm them as they seek solace following the disappearance of their only child. It is only in brief moments we see their love through the tangle and depression, almost as if they both know their relationship is broken but have made an active dec...

VAULT Festival left without a home for future festivals

17Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

VAULT Festival left without a home for future festivals

Following its triumphant return for the first time since the pandemic, VAULT Festival, the UK’s leading festival of live performance, has been advised by its venue-landlord, The Vaults, that it must find a new home for future festivals. VAULT Festival, run by not-for-profit charity VAULT Creative Arts, had repeatedly sought a long-term commitment from The Vaults, but the venue is instead looking at other more commercial projects which leaves VAULT Festival without a home for 2024 and beyond. Having run in the then-derelict tunnels in Waterloo since 2012, VAULT Festival has helped build the reputation of The Vaults over the past 11 years by bringing over 3,000 bold and brilliant shows to more than 400,000 audience members. VAULT Festival is recognised for being vitally important to th...

16Feb

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Wasteman – Vault Festival

Attended Wasteman at the Vault Festival on the same day it was announced that the subterranean performance jamboree is currently under threat. Having run in the formerly derelict tunnels in Waterloo since 2012, VAULT Festival has helped build the reputation of The Vaults over the past 11 years, bringing over 3,000 shows to more than 400,000 people. It’s like having an intense, bijou Edinburgh Festival in the depths of the capital and one might argue, it’s a tad more affordable and easier to manage. According to the Urban Dictionary, ‘wasteman’ is what ‘you call a boy who’s a waste of space and is gonna be nothing in life’. British MC and rapper, Lady Leshurr extended the insult to a former Prime Minister in Queen’s Speech 7, "Who stood up when Grenfell? Where's all the money we raised t...