The weather may be telling a different story, but with festival season upon us summer must be finally here. Here in (what will hopefully remain) sunny Suffolk we are gaining a reputation for our festivals. The long established Aldeburgh Festival has been joined by the Bury St Edmunds, High Tide, Latitude, Harvest at Jimmy’s and Pulse Festivals among others.

A few weeks back High Tide offered us some first class debut plays that would grace any stage and demonstrated that the arts are alive and well here in the sticks.

Tonight see’s the 10th Pulse Fringe Festival kick off here in Ipswich. Much expanded since the original back in 2001 (God I feel old!) the festival now features over 50 performances over three weeks and multiple venues.

After a few years of manically criss-crossing town to catch multiple performances a night, this year it’s a relatively relaxing 18 show schedule for me this year – though a few manic dashes will still be in order (staring tonight with two shows in quick succession.)

What am I hoping for?
Good writing, good direction and some imagination.

What am I hoping to avoid?
Pretentious, absurd for the sake of it, pieces that shouldn’t have left the drawing board.

Some will be good, some will be bad but it’s with an open mind that I head to Pulse waiting (and wanting) to be impressed. Watch this space for the verdicts….

The weather may be telling a different story, but with festival season upon us summer must be finally here. Here in (what will hopefully remain) sunny Suffolk we are gaining a reputation for our festivals. The long established Aldeburgh Festival has been joined by the Bury St Edmunds, High Tide, Latitude, Harvest at Jimmy’s and Pulse Festivals among others.

A few weeks back High Tide offered us some first class debut plays that would grace any stage and demonstrated that the arts are alive and well here in the sticks.

Tonight see’s the 10th Pulse Fringe Festival kick off here in Ipswich. Much expanded since the original back in 2001 (God I feel old!) the festival now features over 50 performances over three weeks and multiple venues.

After a few years of manically criss-crossing town to catch multiple performances a night, this year it’s a relatively relaxing 18 show schedule for me this year – though a few manic dashes will still be in order (staring tonight with two shows in quick succession.)

What am I hoping for?
Good writing, good direction and some imagination.

What am I hoping to avoid?
Pretentious, absurd for the sake of it, pieces that shouldn’t have left the drawing board.

Some will be good, some will be bad but it’s with an open mind that I head to Pulse waiting (and wanting) to be impressed. Watch this space for the verdicts….