GLASGOW'S annual Mayfest arts festival is to be the subject of a major
review before a successor to director Robert Robson is appointed.
Speaking after the launch of the programme for this year's event,
vice-chair Ms Mary Picken, STUC Arts Officer, said that an announcement
would be made soon about the appointment of consultants who would look
at the future structure of the festival.
She confirmed that there would be no immediate move to replace Mr
Robson, who is leaving in July to take over the running of His Majesty's
Theatre in Aberdeen.
The board had taken a view on the future, she said, but had an
obligation to take the fullest possible advice. The consultants would be
asked to consider both the financing of the festival and its artistic
direction.
Introducing Mr Robson's last programme, she paid tribute to the work
of the director and his staff, saying that his last festival was
''arguably his finest''.
The director said that he had deliberately set out to produce a
festival that spanned the broadest possible range.
''We have gone out of our way to find work from off the beaten
track,'' he said. ''To some extent, that has been a reaction against the
sophistication of last year's Canadian season.''
The Canadian link has been maintained in the visit of Marie
Chouinard's dance company from Montreal, but other visitors are from
Cuba, South Africa, Russia, New Zealand and the Ivory Coast.
The music programme includes many American country music artists and a
world music season with top African singers, as well as Mayfest's most
extensive classical and contemporary music programme. The comedy bill is
led by return visits from Julian Clary and Jo Brand.
The popular music and comedy programme will be seen on board The
Ferry, where the programme was launched yesterday, and in the
specially-erected Beck's tent on Glasgow Green.
The new venue has been made possible with a #30,000 award from the
Foundation for Sport and the Arts. General manager Billy Kelly said that
it had plugged the gap in a shortfall in commercial sponsorship from
#95,000 to #65,000.
The festival's largest sponsors are Mercury Communications, with #9000
support for the comedy programme, and the Clydesdale Bank, and the vast
bulk of Mayfest's #760,000 of funding is in the form of a #500,000 grant
from Glasgow City Council.
' We have gone out of our way to find work from off the beaten track '
Robert Robson
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