Festival News Magic memories and emotional connections

Keynes International Festival is reaping richer rewards for headline sponsor centre:mk as each event goes by.

The shopping centre has supported the festival since its debut in 2010, seeing it as an opportunity to bring more reason for visitors to come to Milton Keynes in the first place and, more importantly, to return.

IF plays an important role in promoting Milton Keynes both in a different light and on the world stage. centre:mk uses the vast space of Middleton Hall to host spectacular art installations that invariably become a highlight of each festival; from the bright lights of the Magic Carpets installation in 2016 and the vibrant, buzzing Circus Hub two years later to the mesmerising and thought-provoking Gaia, a sculpture of Planet Earth suspended above Middleton Hall and which proved such a talking point at the festival in 2021.

For centre:mk’s centre director Kevin Duffy, giving back to the city by delivering social value is so important to creating a connection between the customers, the retailers and the centre itself. That, he says, is what brings visitors back.

“Milton Keynes is an unusual place,” he says. “It does not have a typical high street - centre:mk is the high street and the town square so it is about us creating a connection and using the city centre to create events in the square that really promote the city’s cultural heritage and the diversity of Milton Keynes.

We are part of the city and we want to echo that in what we do by providing world-class events in an unusual, different location.”

Kevin’s first experience of IF was in 2016 and the Magic Carpets installation created by digital artist Miguel Chevalier. Constantly changing brightly coloured shapes transformed the floor of Middleton Hall into a captivating display.

“It was amazing and it made me realise the potential we had with the space.”

Middleton Hall’s versatility allowed the centre subsequently to host the Circus Hub and Gaia installations. This year, Middleton Hall houses The Place Between, created by artist Rebecca Louise Law who is known for creating immersive installations with natural materials.

Preserved flowers individually sewn and suspended are a staple of her work, with visitors invited to navigate through them.

Commissioned with centre:mk, The Place Between is emerging with the help of Milton Keynes residents collecting and donating local plant life to supplement her collection and helping to wire each element to create an entrancing hanging garden. The installation has inspired a specially created soundscape by sound artist Jason Singh that will run alongside.

“The work aims to create a moment of contemplation and quiet when we can look at the world in a different way,” says Kevin. “We want to generate a wider emotional connection with our customers and one of the ways we do that is by the environment that we create.

Art installations create a magic memory, a moment in time when the customer makes that emotional investment in the shopping centre.” centre:mk has increased its sponsorship investment in each festival. Its figures show that the

The largest and most spectacular show that IF: Milton Keynes International Festival has ever presented, Place des Anges is sure to be a highlight of this year’s Festival programme. We caught up with Camille Beaumier, the company’s producer and director, and asked her about the story behind this amazing production.

The performances will be only the third time that Place des Anges has been seen in the UK. The previous two took place at London’s Cultural Olympiad in 2012 and at Hull’s UK Capital of Culture programme in 2016.

Tell us a little about Gratte Ciel and the type of work that the company produces. You tour the world with your productions.

CB Gratte Ciel is a company specialising in large-scale outdoor performance and particularly aerial performance. We come from the mountains in the south of France and have a history as climbers, cavers and alpinists. We started using our outdoor techniques to create performances on mountain cliffs first, then in urban settings, combining them with circus. We now try to find a balance between internationally touring productions and smaller scale local and community projects.

And now you’re bringing Place des Anges to Milton Keynes for this year’s Festival. What was the creative impulse for this production?

Place Des Anges started as a joke and its success took us by surprise. The show was created 15 years ago and still reflects our relationship with the vast open space, the air, the verticality. How we find freedom, pleasure and weightlessness in playing with huge heights and how we land on the ground to share this sheer joy with audiences wherever we perform. What can Festival audiences expect to see, hear and experience at Place des Anges? It’s a show for all the

It is certainly a moment to share among friends, family, old and young. It is an immersive experience where an aerial ballet installations inspire more visits - in 2021, footfall rose by 12.5 per cent in the period that IF had installations in Middleton Hall and around centre:mk compared to the week before. Given that Middleton Hall hosts around 200 events a year, giving visitors more reason to come is important to the centre’s growth.

“Our sponsorship of IF is an investment in the centre and community to make sure that centre:mk stays really relevant to today’s shopper,” says Kevin.

Every IF: Milton Keynes International Festival helps to strengthen the reputation of Milton Keynes as a city of substance.

“It has not been seen as a place of culture and history but we are building that now and it is changing people’s perception,” says Kevin.

“It is a great place to do business and we need to be encouraging business visitors to come here. We need to play our part in driving economic development.

“The amount of positive PR that IF generates for the city is incredible. We should be celebrating our city status as much as possible and IF has put us on the world stage. These world-class performances and events helps wider business in Milton Keynes.”