Full list of acts welcoming Little Amal to Bristol announced today
16 Jun 2022
Bristol Old Vic today announced the full line up of artists and community groups who are performing throughout Little Amal’s walk through Bristol on 24 Jun.
At 4pm, the first artists perform as Syrian musicians Dijwar Khalil and Soufian Saihi welcome Little Amal to King Street, followed by Bristol Poet Laureate Miles Chambers and the Bristol Community Choir.
DMAC drummers, (based at Hamilton House) take over with their high energy welcome on Welsh Back, before Little Amal walks on to meet Doorstep Arts and acta Community Theatre on High Street. Corn Street will also have market stalls open representing some of the refugee organisations running in the city, including Sari, project mama, Borderlands, Ashley Housing Association and City of Sanctuary.
Made in Bristol theatre company and Circomedia acrobats continue the party on Corn Street before she makes her way to the centre, Broad Quay for performances by Bristol Samba and Bristol Old Vic Street Theatre Company.
In 2021, Little Amal, the giant puppet of a young Syrian refugee child, captured the world’s imagination by travelling 8,000 km across Europe to focus our attention on the urgent needs of young refugees.
That attention is now even more urgent and on Friday 24 June, to mark refugee week and Bristol as a City of Sanctuary, Little Amal - whose name means "hope" in Arabic - comes to Bristol, just one of the host locations on Little Amal’s journey across the UK.
This family event will introduce Little Amal to the sites and sounds of Bristol, and give Bristol communities the chance to meet her in person as she walks around Bristol’s historic centre.
The Walk: New Steps New Friends is produced by The Walk Productions in association with Handspring Puppet Company. Little Amal is being delivered as one of the activities under the City Centre and High Streets Recovery and Renewal programme, funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority’s Love Our High Street project.
Timetable of Performances:
Members of the public who would like to walk with Little Amal are encouraged to make their own bird puppets to bring with them. A “How To Make” video is available here
3.00pm Bristol Old Vic, King Street
Puppet making workshop for anyone aged 7+ (or younger with adult support)
Make your own bird puppet to fly alongside Little Amal as she walks through our city.
4.00pm Bristol Old Vic, King Street
Music from Syrian Musicians - Dijwar Khalil playing saz and Soufian Saihi playing the oud - supported by Bristol Refugee Festival.
Bristol Refugee Festival supports and facilitates newly arrived and settled communities to come together in celebration of inclusion and diversity through a year-round programme of events, with an annual cross art-form Festival at its core. https://www.bristolrefugeefestival.org/events/
4.30pm Bristol Old Vic, King Street
Little Amal arrives. Miles Chambers performs his poem Bristol Bristol!
Miles is a leading and popular poetic cultural commentator. He is Bristol City’s first Poet Laureate, an international performance poet, slam champion, playwright and broadcaster. He has his words immortalised on the wall of the Bristol Old Vic.
Miles presented his own TV programme as part of the BBC ‘Civilisation’ series. And has also been commissioned for several programmes on Radio 4 including Poetry Please, One to One and Only Artists. His exhibition, comprised of a video performance of his poem, I Wanna Be Treated Normal, is a popular fixture at the Bristol-based museum, M-Shed. He plans to tour his spoken word show Curry Goat and Fish Fingers next year.
4.40pm Bristol Old Vic, King Street
Community Choir
Bristol Old Vic Community Choir meets weekly to create a fun and welcoming environment through community singing. They will be singing to Little Amal at the start of her journey, performing three songs from around the world that invoke hope and comfort to children.
A La Nanita is a Spanish lullaby by Jose Ramon Gomis, Iqude is a folk song in Zulu by Gitika Parington, Gospel Round is an A Capella arrangement by Fiona Lander.
4.45pm Welsh Back
DMAC UK drumming
DMAC UK is a creative artist forum for artistic movement and a home for movement practitioners. They host a huge range of dance and movement, percussion and martial arts classes in Bristol, striving to build a home for diversity-in-the-arts, especially supporting dance styles from outside the UK– African Dance, Cuban Salsa, Brazilian Dance and Capoeira, Bollywood Dance, to name a few.
5pm High Street
Dance piece from Doorstep Arts and acta Community Theatre
Doorstep Arts presents The Bunker Cabaret, a multidisciplinary ensemble of Torbay movers, wordmongers and music makers devising an ongoing performance responding to John Pfumojena's Bunker of Zion. In this debut Bristol appearance, the movement section of the cabaret present a rhythmic celebration of culture, community and joy and invite local groups passes by to join them.
acta believes that theatre belongs to everyone, and everyone has a story to tell. acta creates a place where everyone’s story matters, where individual opinions and experiences count, and are valued by others. From their theatre in Bedminster and further afield, they enable communities to share their stories, and engage audiences who rarely attend theatre.
5.10pm Corn Street
Late night market stalls, Made in Bristol Company and Circomedia
Late night market stalls will be run by Refugee support organisations including Sari, project mama, Borderlands, Ashley Community Housing, and City of Sanctuary.
Little Amal meets the wedding party hosted by Made in Bristol at Bristol Registry Office. She then walks on to meet Circomedia performers.
Made in Bristol is a scheme created by Bristol Old Vic which brings together nine emerging theatre-makers aged 18-25 to become residents in the building for a year. Circomedia is a school for contemporary circus and physical theatre based in Bristol. Contemporary Circus and Physical Theatre is at the heart of everything they do.
5.30pm Centre, Broad Quay
Bristol Samba with Bristol Old Vic Young Company Street Theatre group
Bristol Samba is a community band of drummers and dancers playing energetic Brazilian-based music for celebrating and dancing. The samba band and dancers perform at festivals, parties and events throughout the year, raising the roof and creating a vibrant atmosphere.
Bristol Old Vic Young Company Street Theatre group are part of the Young Company and began in April 2022 for children aged 11-16.
6pm Cascade Steps
Wave farewell as Little Amal leaves on a Bristol Cross Ferry.
Join Somalian children's theatre group, Bristol refugee families and the Lord Mayor of Bristol to wave goodbye.
-ends-
For further information, or interview opportunities, please contact amanda.adams@bristololdvic.org.uk / 07957 438212
Bristol Old Vic is the longest continuously running theatre in the UK, and celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2016. The historic playhouse aims to inspire audiences with its own original productions, both at home and on tour, whilst nurturing the next generation of artists, whether that be through their 350-strong Young Company, their many outreach and education projects or their trailblazing artist development programme, Bristol Ferment.
They use their funding to support experiment and innovation, to allow access to their programme for people who would not otherwise encounter it, or be able to afford it, and to keep their extraordinary heritage alive and animated.
On 24 Sep 2018, Bristol Old Vic completed its 2-year multi-million pound redevelopment project, which transformed its front of house space into a warm and welcoming public building for all of Bristol to enjoy, created a new studio theatre and opened up its unique theatrical heritage to the public for the first time.