BBC Contains Strong Language 2021

creating an opening event that would spark some festival buzz across COVENTRY. 

We were commissioned by the organisers of the BBC Arts spoken word festival Contains Strong Language (part of Coventry City of Culture 2021) to create an opening event that would spark some festival buzz across the city. We dressed up 3 bikes and 3 performers who cycled through the centre of Coventry stopping at various points to share their gift with passersby – performing select pieces of poetry. Their last destination was the Belgrade Theatre, one of the main host venues for the festival, where they performed a finale piece directed by the Artistic Director of Strictly Arts Corey Campbell. The performer costumes were inspired by artwork collated from local Coventry artists that had been printed on postcards and circulated to residents asking them the question “what does friendship mean to you?”.