About

¡VAMOS! is a festival that celebrates Spanish and Portuguese speaking cultures in NewcastleGateshead, UK. Additionally there are events throughout the year alongside the festival programme. ¡VAMOS! combines cuisine, art, film, theatre, dance, music, literature, fashion, sport and education. It offers an international festival appealing to artists, partners and mainstream audiences that is unconstrained by art form, age-group or regional location. The 2010 version confirmed that ¡VAMOS! has established an important growing audience in the region and the interest of people coming from afar.

The festival returns this year - 4th June-10th July for 5 weeks with the programme now live.

'There is no doubt that ¡VAMOS! has taken the idea of a Latin Cultural Festival to a whole new level.'
The Guardian
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'The festival gets better and better with every edition' Instituto Cervantes

‘Primarily people wanted more of everything!  More artists, more countries represented, more music, more food! It seemed to me to have struck a deep chord. It was the sort of event that people seemed to expect in London but not in Newcastle and I was very pleased to be a part of it.’
Junot Diaz (awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and read at ¡VAMOS! 2006)

Since 2006, ¡VAMOS! Festival has delivered to over 70,000 people in North East England a vibrant, accessible and diverse programme of 200+ events celebrating Latin and Lusophone cultures. This has included three 10 day festivals, 2 weekender editions and a multitude of special one-off events and projects. These have been aimed at all age groups and delivered in close partnerships involving Newcastle University, Theatre Royal Newcastle, The Sage Gateshead, Tyneside Cinema, Northern Stage and Dance City amongst a total of 65+ partners.¡VAMOS! has engaged with over 800 artists and performers resulting in 26 commissions, 12 UK premieres and 1500 participants in education projects. It has also delivered 2 international academic conferences with Newcastle Univeristy which brought 165 International delegates to the region. 

2010 
¡VAMOS! returned in July 2010 for 10 whirlwind days of over 40 diverse events celebrating the culture and vibrancy of Spanish and Portuguese speaking cultures! The festival offered a unique and rich opportunity for artists, audience and post graduate and undergraduate students of Latin American Studies, Media Studies, Modern languages and Music to engage with the programme.

¡VAMOS! received suppport from Newcastle University, National Lottery, Arts Council England, North East, DCMS, Newcastle City Council, Gateshead Council, Metro, Instituto Cervantes, Instituto Camões, ACALASP, the Mexico Embassy and the Peruvian Embassy. ¡!VAMOS!! worked in partnership with over 30 organisations and venues from the region, nationally and internationally.

83% events achieving high/capacity attendance 
X26,500 attendance 
72% audience was female 
59% first visit to !VAMOS! Festival
61% Had attended events from previous festivals 
34% Heard about it online 
39% Heard through word of mouth 
23% Heard through public advertising (leaflets, brochures, posters etc) 
62% Attended more than one event
47% were from outside the Tyneside area 
74% spent between £10-50 (average spend £20)
98% positive effect on the way they perceived Newcastle and Gateshead 
38% signed up to social networking sites 
43% signed up to the newsletter
7 events supported by Latin American embassies 
163 artists supported 
98 artists from NE 
7 new commissions 
PR coverage value: £57,708
35K website page views
60% new website visitors 300-400 daily visits during festival period 
Top event in the Guardian Guide (circulation approx 110,000) 

2009
In 2009 we again presented a shorter weekender version which included sold out events across a wide spectrum of artforms. 

2008
The 2008 edition was a huge success with 73% first time visitors to the festival and total attendance of 20,000+ attendance. View ¡VAMOS! 2008 video here.

2007
In 2007 a smaller ¡VAMOS! Weekender took place. The four day programme combined film premieres and screenings, talks, visual arts, food events and club and live music events at venues in Newcastle Gateshead. 75% of the capacity audiences were brand new showing an exciting growth for ¡VAMOS!

2006
The first edition presented 77 performances, 168 artists and a total attendance 10,000+. View ¡VAMOS! 2006 video here.

2003 
The ¡VAMOS! concept was developed over 3 years leading up to the 2006 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 overall aims of the ¡VAMOS! Festival:

Position the region a 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 and Lusophone community via the festival 

Offer work experience opportunities for young people, students and graduates

Encourage healthy activity and well being

Promote tolerance and understanding of other cultures

Offer performance and commission opportunities and extra promotion of artists

Link North East artists with national and international artists for greater learning

Develop new partnerships and simpler links between artists, venues and institutions
 
Open the region's institutions and venues to everybody, thereby helping to increase accessibility

Develop flagship events and projects that the community can take ownership of and become embedded in the region

If you'd like to get involved, have suggestions or just feedback then contact us. 

¡VAMOS! Team 
There are many partner organisations, independent promoters and artists who contribute to ¡VAMOS! but the core team is: 

Nikolas Barrera Co-Director
Nikolas created the ¡VAMOS! concept in 2003. He approached initial partners and funders and developed the full 10 day programme over the next three years. After one 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.

Patricia Oliart Co-Director
Patricia contributed to one of the best events of the first festival (the Martín Chambi exhibition at SIDE Gallery) and ever since then has contributed inspiring ideas, partnerships and programming. After the 2008 edition she came on board in a more formal capacity to help drive the festival forward. Since then the festival has established even more partnerships and diversity.  

Jill Bennison Event Management 
Jill has worked closely on the festival since 2006 and has been vital in ensuring all the events are delivered smoothly and always with a friendly face! She is a huge asset to the festival and to cultural events in the region generally. 

Sarah Labetoulle Festival support
Sarah has come on board as an intern for 4 months for ¡VAMOS! 2011. She has already been  a huge help with her enthusiasm, diligence and attention to detail!

Caiit Read PR, Programming
Cait is the main contact for PR activity for the festival again but has already delivered far more to ¡VAMOS! this year. She has also co-programmed a ¡VAMOS! film season at the Star and Shadow Cinema.

Andrew Nixon Artist Liaison, Logistics and Event Management 
Andrew is also the Director and Treasurer of Vamos Festival Ltd.