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Donate by text

Lakes Alive — Wed 18, April 2012 16:51:42

You can now donate to Mintfest by text message. Simply text MINT12 £5 (or whatever you want to give) to 70070. Thank you!

Mintfeast Auction Fundraiser

Lakes Alive — Wed 07, March 2012 15:05:55

We raised over £4,000!

On Friday March 2, the Mintfeast, a special dinner and auction event at Kendal College, hosted by local MP Tim Farron, raised £4230.30 towards Mintfest 2012.

With Tim acting as auctioneer, 22 unusual items went under the hammer. Among the most popular were a mountain top picnic created by award-winning chef, Steven Doherty, a former head chef of the Roux brothers’ restaurant Le Gavroche, and a bespoke bread-making course with Staff of Life artisan baker Simon Thomas and a surprise, last-minute item for auction – a curry with Tim Farron, Lembit Opik and friends in London!

Each of the items that was sold will pay for a street artist to perform at this year’s Mintfest during the daytime street festival.

We are really grateful to all the wonderful people who supported our dinner and auction and would like to thank you all. Local businesses were very generous with the prizes that were donated and the spirit in which the evening was entered into, by all, was second to none!

However, we still have some way to go to raise all the money we need to make sure that Minfest 2012 lives up to the high standards of previous years, and is the type of festival that audiences have come to expect. So, if you missed out, there will be more fundraising activities taking place throughout March.

Firstly, we have teamed up with Furness Building Society to offer savers the chance to open a Lakes Alive Affinity Account. The Furness will make a donation to MIntfest based on the balance held in all affinity accounts. Therefore, the more account holders save, the more the Furness will donate to Mintfest.

And in another fund raising measure, attractive, limited edition Mintfest pin badges will soon be on sale in shops in and around Kendal. The badges have been produced by the Herdy Company, the company behind the popular Herdy brand, and all proceeds from the sales will go to Mintfest.

Look out for them in and around Kendal - they are truly very lovely!

Interactive Harmonic Fields Sound Map

Lakes Alive — Fri 17, February 2012 16:50:46

Musician and Director of Sound Intervention, Dan Fox has created a fantastic, interactive sound map of the sounds he recorded at Harmonic Fields, an installation of 500 Aeolian wind instruments on Birkrigg Common near Ulverston last June.

The event, brought to you by Pierre Sauvageot (lieux publics) and Lakes Alive, saw a mixture of conventional and purpose built instruments - for example, metal and wood cellos, strings, flutes, Balinese scarecrows, sirens, gongs, harps and bamboo organs - played and powered only by the wind. The sounds that they created, and the tempo of the music that they made depended entirely upon the strength and the direction of the wind.

You can re-visit the installation or experience it for the very first time here. Click on Play + to hear the music created on each site location individually, or click on 'start mix' to listen to several different sites together.

We love it! And now the memory lives on. Thank you Dan.

A magical, memorable Mintfeast

Lakes Alive — Mon 09, January 2012 17:00:14

Your invitation to a magical memorable Mintfeast - Hosted by Tim Farron MP

You are invited to join us for a delectable coalition of fine food, sparkling entertainment and a very special auction to kick off a month of fundraising for Mintfest 2012.

Why? As you may be aware, Mintfest lost its funding from the North West Development Agency from 2012. New funds are urgently needed to ensure that Mintfest can be the festival its audiences expect and deserve.

We’ve already raised more than 50% of our target to keep it at the same level as previous years and now we are inviting you, our friends and audiences, to help us raise the rest by hosting a special evening with delicious food, Mintfest-esque surprises and the opportunity to get your hands on some exclusive money-can’t-buy items and experiences.

When & Where? Fri 2 Mar, 7-10.30pm at Kendal College, Kendal

What? You’ll be served a delicious 3-course meal with wine, specially created by students from the Lakes Hotel School, with entertainment from magical Mintfest artists and an auction featuring exclusive money-can’t-buy items (a list will be sent to all those attending).

How? Places are strictly limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Tickets: £55 (inc VAT) per person. Guests will be seated on tables of eight and there will be special treat in store for groups who book a whole table of 8!

All proceeds from tickets will go directly towards Mintfest and will also support the Lakes Hotel School students’ ‘hospitality around the globe’ research trip 2012 to Tokyo which they fund through producing fantastic food and service at charitable events. So not only are you supporting Mintfest, but you’re investing in the futures of some of Cumbria’s young people.

To book please complete the booking form and return with a cheque for the appropriate amount. Alternatively payment by credit or debit card is available through Paypal, simply complete the booking form, selecting the 'pay online' option.

Lakes Alive — Thu 24, November 2011 15:11:52

Our 2011 Evaluation Report, written by Helen Corkery Marketing & Research has now been published. Please click here to read it (it may take a little while to download as it is a large document.)

MISSSA 2012 course dates announced

Lakes Alive — Wed 26, October 2011 10:48:12

Dates for next year's Mintfest International Summer School for Street Arts have been announced. The course will take place from Saturday August 25 until Monday September 3 2012.

Once again the course will be a fully immersive, residential experience open to new and emerging street artistis, artists of other art forms wishing to take their work outdoors or established street artists wishing to refresh themselves and their practice by trying something new.

Participants will spend their time in a mixture of workshops, rehearsals and lectures. They will be focused on creating a piece of work which they will then peform to large festival audiences, professional artists and industry professionals at Mintfest, Kendal's international festival of street arts.

Detailed course information will be available in the New Year; to join the mailing list and receive the course booklet as soon as it is ready, please email:jenny@kendalartsinternational.com with your email contact.

Lakes Alive — Fri 08, July 2011 12:12:40

On Thursday 7 July, Lakes Alive won the award for Tourism Event of the Year in the Cumbria Tourism Awards and will now go forward to represent Cumbria in the national Enjoy England awards early in 2012. We'll keep you posted! Thanks to Cumbria Tourism and the Castle Green Hotel for a lovely and memorable evening.

Lakes Alive — Fri 18, March 2011 12:34:42

Watch our new film and the announcement that Lakes Alive will be part of Festival 2012 with an event in Cumbria here.

Mintfest International Summer School for Street Arts evaluation report

Lakes Alive — Thu 17, February 2011 17:10:30

MISSSA 2010's evaluation report has just been published and is available to view here. Undertaken by CRESC, University of Manchester in partnership with Kendal Arts International, this is a detailed report on the pilot of the UK's first international summer school for street arts. Find out more about the MISSSA students and tutors and their experiences of performing at Mintfest here.

Mintfest International Summer School for Street Arts 2011

Lakes Alive — Mon 20, December 2010 12:10:53

SAVE THE DATES!

The Mintfest International Summer School for Street Arts will return again in 2011. The course has been extended to 10 days and will take place from August 27 - September 05 2011. This is a unique opportunity for new and emerging street artists to spend 10 days working with a leading national / international street artist on a show that they will then perform at Mintfest2011.

Full information will be available early in the New Year, so if you are interested - or know anyone else who may be - pop the dates in your diaries and email jenny@kendalartsinternational.com to join the MISSSA mailing list and we will send you full info as soon as it is ready. Save those dates!

Evaluation Report 2010

Lakes Alive — Fri 10, December 2010 14:24:13

We've just published our evaluation report which looks at the impact of the Lakes Alive programme from data collected during the 2010 season. Take a look here if you're interested in finding out more.

Lakes Alive 2010 Season Film

Lakes Alive — Tue 19, October 2010 16:10:21

The 2010 season's over - and we're well under way with plans and prep for the 2011 season programme - but just so you don't forget what's been before, have a look at our 2010 season short film here!

Lakes Alive — Thu 01, July 2010 17:08:33

New 2010 event film footage from Carlisle, Barrow and Whitehaven. Can you spot yourself?

Watch it here

Evaluation Report 2009

Lakes Alive — Tue 02, February 2010 13:55:51

An independent evaluation report, created by CRESC at the University of Manchester, has been published about the impacts of Lakes Alive 2009. To view a copy please click here.

Two new Lakes Alive films on You Tube

Lakes Alive — Wed 05, August 2009 10:50:59

We're now the proud owners of two new Lakes Alive films which you can view on You Tube.

The first is a compilation of all our events so far, view here.

The second features footage of our Dance Daze festival in Penrith on 26 July, which many people turned out to, despite the rain! View Dance Daze film here.

Lyn Gardner of The Guardian on Street Arts

Lakes Alive — Thu 26, March 2009 11:39:38

Lyn Gardner discusses the impact of Street Arts in her blog, The joy of street arts: how giant spiders and elephants could cure our woes.

New Events Programme. New Website!

Lakes Alive — Wed 18, February 2009 12:14:20

Welcome to the new Lakes Alive website. We hope you like it as much as we do.

It’s now just over ten weeks until Reach for the Sky, the launch week of the new four-year Lakes Alive programme, and new information about the events and our guest performers is being confirmed every day. We’re also busily firming up details of events during July and August and programming the very best performers from across the globe for Mintfest, the annual Street Arts Festival in Kendal which promises to be hotter than ever this year!

We’ll be adding lots more content and detail to this site as we go along so please do keep checking back, or sign up to receive our e-newsletter to make sure you keep in touch. We promise we won’t bombard you!

Please explore the site and get the dates of all the events into your diaries, as we’d love you to join us right from the start of what is certain to be a thoroughly exhilarating four year journey!

Julie Tait, Director - Kendal Arts International