AV06 Closing Gala at Empire, Middlesbrough. Photo: Mark Savage.
The second AV Festival - LifeLike took place in over 25 venues in NewcastleGateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough from 2-12 March 2006. Over 10 days, AV delivered over 90 events in 3 urban centres. It included an impressive range of energetic and challenging new work never seen in the UK before, including several ambitious new commissions from renowned artists, filmmakers and musicians from countries as far afield as Japan, Australia, New Zealand USA, Spain, France, Norway and Germany. The theme of the 2006 festival was LIFE.
Mark Robinson, Chief Executive of Arts Council England North East noted in a press release:
“It is very rare for a festival to cross the Tyne, the Wear and the Tees. It is very rare for a festival to commission so many truly world figures to create work in the North East. It is very rare for a festival to reach out to such a diverse audience with challenging and entertaining work of such variety. In short, AV Festival 06 has been a very unusual success indeed - one that really stands out as an example of how high ambition and strong partnerships are making North East England a great place to be.”
Robotic Music by Suguru Goto.
Photo: Mark Savage.
15 newly commissioned works were made for and premiered at the festival. The festival hosted 21 world premieres and 4 UK premieres.
An estimated 135,000 people experienced the AV Festival through its programme, its outdoor projections and its website, with 10,1724 people passing interventions and events in the city centres as part of Street Life and 34,142 attending concerts, films, exhibitions and events at venues across the three cities.
213 artists, filmmakers and musicians participated in the festival, including 110 from the region, 57 from rest of UK and 45 from around the world.
15 freelance jobs were created, in addition to one and half more permanent posts. 70 dedicated volunteers informed and assisted festival visitors. 28 organisations were engaged or supported by the festival.