About

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QUOTES

‘There is no doubt that !VAMOS! has taken the idea of a Latin Cultural Festival to a whole new level. Tyneside has a booming Latin American community and for five years the !VAMOS! Festival has worked tirelessly in their bid to celebrate Spanish and Portuguese cultures across Newcastle and Gateshead.’ The Guardian

‘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 2008 Pulitzer Prize and read at ¡VAMOS! 2006)

‘The festival gets better and better with every edition’ Instituto Cervantes

¡VAMOS! Festival was launched in July 2006 and since then has entailed a diverse programme of 300+ events and projects to a total combined audience of 100,000+ people in North East. These have been aimed at all age groups and delivered in close partnerships with over 95+ partners. ¡VAMOS! has engaged 2000 participants in education projects, 830 artists and performers resulting in 30 commissions and 16 UK premieres.

Delivered by a small, committed team, VAMOS has also offered vital work training opportunities to post graduate, undergraduate students and general public totaling 80 volunteers. It has created one North East business and generated £650, 755 of PR value.

The festival offers a unique 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.

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Previous editions

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.  83% events achieving high/capacity attendance and total attendance X26,500.

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 videohere.

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).

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Festival aims

The overall aims of the ¡VAMOS! Festival:

• Promote appreciation and understanding of other cultures
• Encourage healthy activity and well being
• Engage and excite the North East Lusophone and Spanish speaking community via the festival
• Open the region’s cultural institutions and venues to everybody, thereby helping to increase reach, accessibility and enjoyment of local resources
• Develop flagship events and projects that the community can take ownership of and become embedded in the region
• Position the region as 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
• Develop new partnerships and simpler links between artists, venues and institutions
• Link North East artists with national and international artists for greater learning
• Offer performance and commission opportunities and extra promotion of artists
• Offer work experience opportunities for young people, students and graduates

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