Foreign Stars of Street Art at Gradić Fest: One-man Orchestra And Hard Rock On Children’s Instruments
The French band The Wackids, who play hard rock on children’s instruments, will be one of the headliners of this year’s Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest, which will take place from 30th August to 1st September, in the Lower Town of the Petrovaradin Fortress. Other foreign street artists, predominantly musicians, from Italy, Portugal and Great Britain, will also perform in Gradić, and there will also be a rich regional and local program, as well as film projections, theatre plays, art performances and exhibitions.
The Wackids are three skilled musicians, Blowmaster, Bongostar and Speedfinger, devoted to the hard sound of the classic rock ‘n’ roll era, whose hits they perform with the help of Hello Kitty drums, an entire set of plastic guitars for children, and small keyboards with multicolored keys. All the fans of good gigs, aged 6 to 666, will have the opportunity to hear hits by Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Queen, Aerosmith and Nirvana – according to the invitation that these wacky Frenchmen have extended to the audiences of Novi Sad.
In the long tradition of the Street Musicians Festival there is one constant – when Italians come, a great party is guaranteed. This year’s program of Gradić Fest will include a lot of artists from the Apennine Peninsula, among whom the leading role belongs to Bandakadabra, a brass orchestra with drums, who successfully and charmingly manage to enrich the classic brass orchestra sound with their modern approach and arrangements full of humor and interaction with the audience. Their other fellow countrymen performing at this year’s fest are one-man orchestra Mark di Giuseppe, a master of harmonica and beat-box Moses Concas, and performer Zeroelectrodrum.
The big international project “Pinocchio Joins the Orchestra (on S.TR.E.E.T)” represents a meeting of different methods for creating, learning and applying music. On stage at Gradić Fest, we will see 40 members of the choir and orchestra of very diverse, both conventional instruments and original instruments made of recycled materials. The music created within this project is based on the elements of children’s songs combined with classical and ethno music, inspired by the famous story about the wooden puppet Pinocchio.
Sol Cinema from Great Britain is a true, but unusual delicacy for all the fans of the seventh art. Their vintage caravan with Dolby surround system is the smallest cinema in the world, with only 8 seats, which can be a good way to spend a pleasant evening at the festival, with a good quality selection of short films and, naturally, popcorn.
The Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest 2018 – is organized by the Art Association Inbox from Novi Sad, with the sponsorship of the city of Novi Sad and the Provincial Secretariat for Culture and Public Information.