History

Capital Age Festival (CAF) has really exploded into life since its conception and the number of visitors has grown steadily.  From 900 attendees in 2003 to over 25,000 in 2007! 

CAF was initially a programme of work delivered by a working committee within London Older People’s Strategies’ Group (LOPSG), an umbrella forum of over 250 older people’s organisations, founded in 2000 and set up to engage with the Mayor of London.  

One of LOPSG’s initial aims was to establish a free pan-London older people’s festival. CAF ensured that the festival highlighted not only the celebration of age, but also older Londoners frequently forgotten contribution to the cultural, social and economic life of the capital city.  In December 2000, LOPSG’s first conference on arts and culture highlighted the importance of the arts to older Londoners sense of well-being, identity and civic pride. As a result, one of LOPSG’s principal aims became the establishment of a pan-London older people’s cultural festival.

Festival History

The primary activity of CAF has been an annual free arts festival.  This has most commonly been sited at Bernie Spain Gardens and Coin Street, along the south bank of the Thames River.

2003:

First festival held. The morning was by invitation only at City Hall and in the afternoon on the adjoining Potters Fields, where 900 people attended.

2004:

A chain of related events from June to October was organised by twelve London boroughs under the CAF banner. 5,000 people attended the festival with more participating in related events.

2005:

CAF expanded its stakeholder list to include many smaller groups from London’s older ethnic populations and notably included a wide range of larger BME groups. CAF contracted an external consultant to work with the CAF team on long-term planning and organised a cultural seminar to explore ways of working with partners and encouraging new and imaginative participative workshops and older people’s arts events.

2006:

CAF commissioned a ground-breaking research project which led to the creation of an interactive website and a publicly accessible database of organisations working with older people through the arts.

2007:

CAF made a leap forward in its artistic development in commissioning David Slater (Artistic Director, Entelechy Arts) to produce the first winter festival. This was held in The Chamber and conference rooms at City Hall, London. The CAF website was launched at this event. David Slater was also commissioned as curator of the annual summer festival, bringing together a mix of over 250 older performers from 25 companies. CAF piloted an access scheme to enable a variety of isolated and marginalized groups to join in the festival events. Festival attendance had grown to an estimated 25,000 people.

2008:

CAF produced Capital Age Festival: The Big Chair Dance 2008, at Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre in partnership with Entelechy Arts, East London Dance and Southbank Centre. The Big Chair Dance was a mass participation dance event for older people and was the central feature of the summer festival. Twelve older people's groups from across London were selected to participate in the event. The central event spawned several mini-festivals of dance. Approximately 3,000 audience members watched over 200 performers.

2009:

The decision was made to not run the annual festival for the first time. This decision arose from the need for a full evaluation of the organisation and for capacity building. The results of this evaluation took the form of a new piece of funded research.

In February, performers from The Big Chair Dance were invited to the Purcell Room at Southbank Centre for the launch of a short film chronicling the project. The film launch instigated further events across the capital. Participating groups continued to work with the same professional dancers, creating new shows based on the same model.

2010:

In March 2010, CAF delivered Capital Age Festival: The Winter Gathering 2010. Similar in model to the 2007 winter festival, the event included a space for over 100 older people and professionals to discuss the question “How do we improve older people's arts?” Using Open Space Technology, a report was produced by the participants which was presented to the Deputy Mayor of London and made available to participants and on the CAF website. The event was supported in-kind by GLA who made space at City Hall available for free.

In the summer, CAF produced Capital Age Festival: Dancing stAGE in partnership with Big Dance, East London Dance and Southbank Centre in July 2010. A team of professional artists worked with over 200 older people from across the capital to create an original performance piece, featuring older dancers from arts and non-arts based organisations. The piece was performed at Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre.

In autumn 2010 CAF organised a chartered boat trip down the Thames in partnership with Entelechy Arts and Audiences London. This pilot networking and performance event welcomed director João Henrique Bernardi as part of a cultural exchange between London and the southern Brazilian city of Londrina, Casa das Fases.