About AV Festival

Audio Visual Arts North East is an independent charitable company whose objective is to promote electronic art for public benefit in the North East of England. The primary activity of Audio Visual Arts North East is to deliver the biennial AV Festival. The AV Festival is an international festival of electronic arts, and features visual art, music and moving image. A biennial event, the festival takes place in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough in the North East of England. The festival consists of concerts, performances, exhibitions, film screenings, outdoor events, seminars, symposia, workshops and other special events at many venues across the North East.

AV Festival

AV has run three successful festivals thus far. The latest festival, AV Festival 08: Broadcast took place across the three urban areas of NewcastleGateshead, Sunderland & Middlesbrough, 28 February - 8 March 2008. It was the largest and most ambitious AV Festival to date.

The theme of the festival was broadcast. The UK began to switch off analogue television signals in 2007-2008, paving the way for television to become entirely digital. At the same time the internet and mobile networks have created opportunities for us to 'broadcast ourselves' in entirely new ways. As the landscape of broadcasting changes irrevocably, AV Festival 08 created a catalyst for debate about the future of broadcasting, and acted as an event to celebrate a century of on-air and online transmission.

The programme included over 75 projects, which manifested as over 100 events, featuring artists such as It featured Marko Peljhan, Staalplaat Sound System, Marcus Coates, Resonance FM, Chris Watson, Harun Farocki, Tetsuo Kogawa, Autechre, Joyce Hinterding, Yuko Mohri, Van Gogh TV, Active Ingredient, Jean-Jacques Perrey, People Like Us and dozens of others.

Highlights included recreations of John Cage's iconic 1966 performance Variations VII (LINK TO BELOW PAGE) performed by :zoviet*france:, Matt Wand & Atau Tanaka and the famous 1938 radio play, War of the Worlds, rewritten and directed by Joanna Read.

AV Festival 08 had audiences of over 100,000 including visitors to events, online and through its on air radio stations.

The Cremaster Cycle. Director: Matthew Barney.

The Cremaster Cycle.
Director: Matthew Barney.

It delivered:

  • 16 new commissions & premieres
  • 19 performances (involving around 64 artists)
  • 12 exhibitions (involving around 44 artists)
  • 3 conferences (involving around 47 participants)
  • 9 talks & seminars (involving over 29 participants)
  • 25 screenings
  • 8 courses and workshops (involving around 17 participants)
  • 3 radio stations (involving around 12 artists)

Past Festivals

The first AV Festival was held 18 – 22 November 2003. The festival sold over 6,395 tickets to over one hundred events across three towns in two weeks. It included new a newly commissioned film by The Light Surgeons which aired on BBC Television, screenings of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle, a Mike Figgis film retrospective, a world premiere by Peter Greenaway, new work by Richard Fenwick, a performances by the Cinematic Orchestra, DJ Food, Tina Frank and General Magic, onedotzero screenings and a lively programme of workshops and lectures.

AV06 Opening Gala. Photo: Mark Savage.

AV06 Opening Gala.
Photo: Mark Savage.

The second AV Festival - LifeLike took place in over 25 venues from 2–12 March 2006. Over 10 days, AV delivered over 90 events in 3 urban centres. Curatorially, AV Festival 06 investigated life sciences. It featured challenging new work by Michael Nyman, D-Fuse, Carsten Nicolai, and many others. It included 15 ambitious new commissions from artists, filmmakers and musicians such as Ryoji Ikeda, Ken Rinaldo, Andy Gracie, Anthony McCall, Gina Czarnecki, Time’s Up, :zoviet*france:, Suguru Goto and others. The 2006 festival attracted 34,142 attendees to events, an increase of the 2003 figures. It reached an estimated 101,724 additional people through footfall from the outdoor projection programme, through the radio broadcast and through the website.

Festival achievements in 2006:

  • 15 newly commissioned works were made for and premiered at the festival
  • The festival hosted 21 world premieres and 4 UK premieres
  • 213 artists, filmmakers and musicians participated in the festival, including110 from the region, 57 from rest of UK and 45 from around the world

AV Festival is based upon an original idea developed by Jeff Cleverley for AV Partnership in 2002.
Audio Visual Arts North East was established in March 2007 and is a Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England Number 06141603. Registered Charity Number 1120368. The registered office is c/o Tyneside Cinema at Old Town Hall on West Street in Gateshead.