¡VAMOS!
¡VAMOS! is a biennial festival celebrating Latin and Lusophone cultures in NewcastleGateshead, UK. Over 10-days it combines cuisine, fashion, art, film, theatre, dance, music, literature, sport and education! The festival returns this year from 11th-20th July with the programme LIVE now!
¡VAMOS! offers two distinct elements:
A 10-day international festival appealing to artists, partners and mainstream
audiences.
An accessible festival concept unconstrained by art form, age-group or regional
location.
The ¡VAMOS! concept was developed 3 years leading up to the first festival and the ¡VAMOS! Festival Ltd organisation formed in January 2006. The team behind ¡VAMOS! are NAME, a North East based arts business (www.name-site.com).
The first edition was very successful, with 77 performances, 168 artists and a total attendance 10,000+.
In April 12th - 15th 2007 we staged a small format ¡VAMOS! Weekender. This was aimed at building awareness of the forthcoming 2008 festival, remind audience of the achievements of 2006, develop further a latin / lusophone audience in the North East and engender new relationships with sponsors, funders, artists and audience generally.
The four day programme combined film premieres and screenings, talks, visual arts, food events and club and live music events at six venues in Newcastle Gateshead. 75% of the capacity audiences were brand new showing an exciting growth for ¡VAMOS!
The overall aims of the ¡VAMOS! Festival:
Position NewcastleGateshead as a truly global location for world-class culture and professionally delivered cultural events.
Foster deeper relationships with embassies, festivals, promoters, artists, academic
institutions, media partner and corporate sponsors.
Engage and excite the North East Latin/ Spanish / Portuguese community via the festival as well as the wider North East population.
If you'd like to get involved, have suggestions or just feedback then click on the link on the left hand side of the site.
¡VAMOS! Team
Director: Nikolas Barrera
Nikolas created the ¡VAMOS! concept in 2003.
He approached initial partners and funders and developed the full 10 day programme over the next 3 years. After 1 year he was introduced to Ian Biddle and Dr. Vanessa Knights from University of Newcastle upon Tyne and they officially linked together for the benefit of the overall ¡VAMOS! project.
Dr Ian Biddle
School of Arts and Cultures, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Head of Music at the University of Newcastle, Senior lecturer in Music.
Director of the CETL for Music and Inclusivity.
Andrew Nixon
Artist liaison, logistics, event management and accounts.
Director and Treasurer of Vamos Festival Ltd.
Agustin Fernandez
Programming and delivery support
Agustin Fernandez came forward to offer his expertise, time and enthusiasm to the project after the recent sad passing away of ¡VAMOS! partner Dr. Vanessa Knights. We believe this is yet another example of the strong ‘will’ behind ¡VAMOS! from all groups and we are privileged to have him as part of the team.