'A big melting pot of people and art': Youngsters get together for RawFfest

Kurtis, who is studying manufacturing at Tonyrefail Comprehensive, is in Newport for the weekend to attend RawFfest; a new youth arts festival organised by young people, for young people taking place in the Riverfront Theatre this weekend.

The 17-year-old, who has been performing for about six years, is part of the Valley Kids theatre company. They’ve adapted a Kafka story and they’ll be performing it on Saturday.

“I’m so nervous, it’s such a big theatre,” he said. “I’m afraid I’ll forget a line.

“I love acting because it gives me confidence and it allows me to make friends.”

Anya Sims is another 17-year-old who has travelled a long way to come to the festival. She’s from Holyhead and is helping out with the setting up of the festival.

“I’m looking forward to so many things,” she said while decorating a post box that will be filled with postcards for people who have donated and made RawFfest possible. “I’ll be here for the whole weekend so I’m really excited about the workshop on how to build your own fashion business.

“I’d love to become a fashion designer one day.”

Anya’s favourite thing of the festival was taking part on a fashion shoot on Tuesday. “Everything is so fun,” she said. “There isn’t that much arts for young people.

“I’ve never had the opportunity to meet so many young people who are interested in the creative arts. This is great.”

Sarah Hudson, a 25-year-old choreographer from Cardiff who has been organising the festival since its initial stages, agrees with Anya.

“At the moment, youth arts festivals aren’t accessible – I believe they’re all very elitist,” she said.

“This festival was designed to be the opposite, it was designed to be friendly and inclusive of all the arts and everyone.

“It’s a big melting pot of people and arts.”

Ms Hudson, who went to several festivals for research, including one in Aberdeen, came up with the name of the festival. “The concept of this festival is about something raw, not polished,” she said. “I go to festivals all the time, but I’m so excited about this one.

“I love RawFfest, I can’t wait to see everything. It’s the first edition, so it’s always a bit of a risk.”

Ms Hudson is putting together a flashmob. They only thought about doing one on Monday so they’ll only have time to rehearse three times before the performance on Friars Walk at 2pm.

“The flashmob is for everyone – easy for those that don’t dance or perform, but fun for those who do,” she said.

From flashmobs to live music and from fashion shows to plays, RawFfest will embrace all sorts of art forms.

Highlights of the festivals include a silent twmpath, a graffiti workshop led by professional graffiti artist FatCap and a Doctor Who game maker workshop.

Among others today, there’ll be clothes design workshops and screen printing masterclasses throughout the day. In the afternoon, there’ll be ballet ‘with attitude’ as well as a hip hop writing class.

The day will finish with Hummadruz, a combination of circus, illusion, dance, and puppets to illustrate classical, pop, rock and techno music. They will perform abstract psychedelic routines and comic visual feasts.

Tomorrow will be the fashion themed day and, for example, there’ll be a workshop on how to build your fashion business in 90 minutes.

The festival will close with a fashion show. Under the name ‘I design dreams’, the show aims to demonstrate what young people in Wales are dreaming about nowadays. It will include garments made during the festival.

Andrew Ogun, an 18-year-old teenager from Somerton, is one of the organisers who has been working on the logo and the website. He is really excited about the fashion show.

He said: “I’m looking forward to it because I’ll be showing my own collection.”

Mr Ogun has been working on marketing and design with Daniel Austin, a 23-year-old from Cwmbran who studied advertising and design at the University of South Wales.

He said: “The arts industry is so competitive, so this gives us a chance to organise things, rather than just taking part on them.

“It’s good to see how we can inspire change and build young people’s confidence.”

Twenty-one-year-old Sophie Coward, from Maindee, agreed with Mr Austin. She said: “It’s so exciting, there has been nothing like it before in Wales.

“We’re the first arts festival for young people organised by young people. It’s so innovative and so special.”

The festival is so original it has attracted the attention of a youth theatre festival in India, Thespo.

Saatvika Kantamneni, a 25-year-old from Mumbai who’s currenly doing a masters in theatre at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, is attending the festival on behalf of the Indian festival.

She said: “They asked me to participate in this festival so we can build a conversation and probably arrange an exchange in the near future.

“I want to take part in as many activities and talk to as many people as I can.

“There’s so much to learn.”

Apart from arts groups from across Wales, many local organisations are attending RawFfest. St John’s ambulance was there on Friday and Newport Youth Services is running colouring sessions.

Suze de Lee, a community youth work at Newport Youth Services, said: “It made sense that we came.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to engage with young people and promote our services through a creative workshop. Workshops are a nice and easy way to start a conversation with people.”

RawFfest's director Ruth Garnault said: “RawFfest is the product of some of our finest Welsh arts organisations coming together to reach new, younger audiences.

“I’m incredibly excited about the programme, the standard of acts and performers as well as the variety of talent on display.

“Flash mobs, workshops, music, dance, theatre, visual art, and everything in between has been covered.”

To find out more about RawFfest or to book your tickets, visit tickets.newportlive.co.uk/default.aspx or call 01633 656757.

A ticket for the full weekend, including meals and accommodation, is £50. A day ticket is £15.