Coventry Shoot Festival Announces Full Program of Artists

Shoot Festival returns this year with a mix of commissioned pieces and showcases of the best of Coventry's early-career arts scene. The festival's 'In Bloom' strand features artists from past editions of Shoot Festival who have been commissioned to create new work. The exhibition strand will run from 23rd April - 7th May, featuring an exploration of isolation and vulnerability, and from 27th-29th April there will be music and theatre pieces covering topics such as gambling addiction, historical Nigerian feminism, and reimaginations of the traditional Bollywood sound. Meanwhile, a Saturday programme on 23rd April will platform some of Coventry's brightest new artists. There will be new music over on the sound stage at the Bull Yard, theatre and comedy at the Shop Front Theatre, a series of exhibitions that run across the entire two week festival, and a naughty flock of sheep that will be causing havoc in the city centre.

The Performance: In Bloom strand of the festival will feature Gamble by Hannah Walker and Rosa Postlethwaite, an urgent multimedia theatre/live art show about online gambling addiction, as well as protests, hymns and caskets by lanaire aderemi (Shoot Festival 2019 Artist Award Winner), which recounts the Nigerian feminist movement's successful overthrow of colonial taxation in 1947 and its important, fearless legacy. This strand is presented in partnership with China Plate's Bite Size Festival, Warwick Arts Centre and Belgrade Theatre Coventry. The Sound: In Bloom strand which is presented in partnership with The Tin Music & Arts highlights Koyesax, a local saxophonist who is releasing a new EP inspired by Afrobeats and Jazz fusion, folk music duo Rosso who have recently supported The Libertines in Coventry, and Mahendra Patel, who works to rewrite classic Bollywood pieces using hand drums from across the world, with his band Elephant in the Room, who have been assembled especially for Shoot Festival 2022. Michael Snodgrass (AKA Snod) is the first artist to be announced in the new Visual Art strand for 2022, Exhibition: In Bloom, presented in partnership with Coventry Artspace with his new exhibition Moments of Broken Promises, utilising line and texture to explore isolation and vulnerability.

On Saturday 23rd April, Shoot Festival also introduces a free programme of an eclectic mix of artists from the area. The Sound Stage, open from 12pm, features upcoming artists such as rock/blues artist Jack Blackman, pop/80s artist Abz Winter (BBC CWR Artist of the Month) and singer-songwriter Izzie Derry, alongside groups including the introspective Bar Pandora, neo-psych jazz ensemble The Mintakaa Collective, afro-fusion group Mvskfxce, VIEUX BAKAYOKO & BAND, with his West African-based new compositions and dynamic electronic music from VIEON. The stage is closed out by ska band Those Fine Strangers.

Simultaneously, performance pieces will be taking place at the Shop Front Theatre. The lineup includes pieces celebrating crowd favourite local comics, autobiographical work covering topics such as neurodivergence and the education system, spoken word tackling Nigerian faith and identity, and examinations of the queer experience through technology-based performance.

The Saturday programme also sees the opening of a series of exhibitions, with topics ranging from celebrating Coventry's post-war recovery, introspective expressionistic pieces, and memory-evoking work using textiles and art that is based in everyday domestic life. In and amongst all of this, a Naughty Flock of Sheep (presented by The Fabularium) will be roaming Coventry city centre, having escaped their farm and now on the run from the farmer's sheep dog, Courthoys. Hang on to your hats, umbrellas, pushchairs, and even your food!

Jen Davis, Co-Artistic Director of Shoot Festival, said, "'We are delighted that Shoot Festival is returning to Coventry for its fifth festival of celebrating trailblazing local talent. After two years of uncertainty, emerging artists have been one of the hardest hit in the cultural sector and we are determined to offer them the platform they so deserve. Coventry and Warwickshire is bursting with pioneering theatre makers, musicians and visual artists and we're immensely pleased to be offering such a diverse and exciting programme'

Shoot Festival seeks to give opportunities to emerging artists exclusively from the Coventry area, in three separate disciplines: music, performance and visual arts. Since 2014, the Shoot Festival team have sought to champion artists from the CV postcode in order to provide opportunities and develop a pipeline of talent in a wide range of artistic disciplines, in the form of free and commissioned opportunities. The festival has received national recognition, through partnerships with Sky Arts and through their work to prioritise accessibility both in their artistic programme and production teams.

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