Manchester’s freshest guerrilla arts event, Hazard hits the streets again this summer for one day of spontaneous mischief making.
After a 2007 event which saw Cathedral Gardens wrapped in yellow and black tape, Market Street brought to a standstill with burlesque shop mannequins and a cowboy and giant rabbit set loose in the Northern Quarter, Hazard returns this July with further widespread outbreaks mischief and mayhem.
Hazard is Manchester’s micro-festival of incidental intervention and sited performance, packed full of chance encounters, random occurrences and risky ventures around and about the city centre.
In an outbreak of cheeky, thought-provoking and sometimes raunchy sprees of eccentricity, Hazard will this year see three intrepid explorers attempt to navigate a circle around the city centre on water, a giant trout enjoying the water feature in Piccadilly Gardens, a giant, interactive game taking over Cathedral Gardens, created with the members of Urbis Underground, and a guided tour, from behind rose tinted visors, encountering giant performing traffic cones. Plus there’s the return of the burlesque mannequins to bring more mayhem to Market Street.
Once again this unnamed group of performance activists will be taking to the streets in an audacious move to reclaim the city in the name of art. Unsettling behaviour will be par for the course; shop windows, city squares, canals and street corners will play host to surprising, risqué and outrageous performances.
Not everything will be what it appears: a flash of yellow and black may just give the game away.
A public space becomes impassable…a spoof hazmat alert… flashing red runways… scene-of-crime bodies litter the streets… an intrepid group of canoeists circumnavigate the city by canal…
… bogus workmen, bogus health & safety inspectors and bogus tourists… genuine benefits advice from a small camp man… anime characters playing interactive games… burlesque shop window mannequins loose on the streets…
A giant trout bathing in a fountain…outbursts of spontaneous song…a stray round of applause…a family day-trip in search of Engels… and an encampment on our least visited railway station.
All this and more may just catch your eye thanks to: Accidental Collective, Adela Jones/Will Pollard, Ann Rapstoff , Artificial Light, Charles Quick, Chirp, Chris Fitzsimmons, Doldrum Theatre, James Long, Kate Wiggs, Martin Hamblen, Shahram Entekhabi ,The Bucket Company, The Institute for the Art + Practice of Dissent at Home, Michael PInchbeck, The Muffia, Balcony Bingo, Varsity of Maneuvers and whatsthebigmistry.
The only show you need to book for is:
Agent by whatsthebigmistry; a limited capacity rose-tinted tour of the city complete with strange encounters en route. To book a place call 0161 615 0500, first come first served. Tours leave from Urbis at 12.30pm, 2pm, 3.30pm and 5pm and are FREE, so book now.
STOP-PRESS!
NEW ADDITIONS:
St Ann’s Square
The Long and Winding Road (12-6pm)
Michael PInchbeck
A graffiti covered car en route from Nottingham to Liverpool, packed with 365 mementoes spilling out over the back seat. You are invited to fasten your seatbelt and join him in a one to one road story.
Round & about town
The Cheadle Hulme International Goth Clog Ballet. (12-6pm)
Balcony Bingo
NOW ON THE MOVE:
Window Undressers (12-5pm)
The Bucket Company
The return of the living mannequins, shedding garments in rebellion against plastic “perfection”. This time they go walkabout – released from their glass prison look out for living mannequins round and about town.
Unfortunately CHIRP and Found Sculptures are now cancelled.
Download a Hazard programme here: Hazard Programme (front) and Hazard Programme (back)
(Please note that these programmes went to print prior to the aforementioned changes.)
To keep up to date with information and the inside knowledge on Hazard, go to: myspace.com/hazardmcr.
Produced by hÅb and greenroom with the artists.
Funded by Manchester City Council and Lottery funded through Arts Council England
Supported by: URBIS, AGMA, Northern Rail. Thanks to Royal Exchange Theatre, Eat & Mandy Martinez.
Check out images and audio clips from the hazardous day here.
Live Art Alert
If you thought live art wasn’t for you but find yourself intrigued by Hazard, join us for emergency, its sister event – 40 short performances in a day and a half, once again, all free! (26 & 27 September) at greenroom.
13th Jul, 2008 at 9:47pm
I came across ‘The Long and Winding Road’ whilst visiting an old friend in Manchester on Saturday. I formed the audience as the passenger in the car. Was it only five minutes? I have to admit to being the woman who ended in tears. The story was intensely moving and it tapped into one of my memories of clearing my mother’s house following her death and finding a few sheets of paper on which she had written all about us, her family. I wasn’t able to speak to the actors when the journey was over and wasn’t able to explain to my friend for some fifteen minutes. I just wanted to say thankyou.