Festival Celebrates Air And Wind

By Londonist Staff Last edited 97 months ago
Festival Celebrates Air And Wind
Some air above London. Or sky, if you will. Photo by Andrejs Fjodorovs in the Londonist Flickr pool

Air, just like love, is all around. But do we air our feelings for air enough? Now's your chance: Breathe is a three-week-long festival in Stoke Newington — running from 26 February-20 March — celebrating everything to do with air, wind and breath.

Three weeks?! we hear you exhale. Isn't that a tad long-winded? Well, it would appear there are lots of ways to celebrate. The centrepiece of the festival is VOX, a wind harp installed in the tower of St Mary's church on Stoke Newington Church Street. Across the road, in the Old Church (the festival's main venue), the vibrations of the harp strings are echoed by light shifts and colour changes. Throughout the festival, you can pop in, soak it up, and even meditate.

Also in the (wind)pipeline: a pre-festival windmill-making workshop on 13 February (the windmills will then be displayed in the Old Church's graveyard as TILT for the duration of the festival); songwriter and folk singer Karine Polwart performs a 50-minute piece combining flight science, Celtic and Nordic weather myths and ancient bird lore on 26 February; there's a beatboxing workshop on 4 March; and, on 10 March, a meditation on the wind for voice, sitar, electronics and wind harp from musicians Bishi and Neil Kaczor, with visuals from Noriko Okaku.

A full list of goings-on at Breathe is available on the website. Some events are free, others ticketed. Breathe runs from 26 February-20 March in and around the Old Church, Stoke Newington

Last Updated 10 February 2016

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