Shangri-La designed to showcase that “folks energy is feasible”

Utilizing VR know-how and located supplies, this yr’s Shangri-La hopes to spotlight the ability of group, explains artistic director Kaye Dunnings.

By Henry Wong

June 27, 2022
4:59 pm

June 27, 2022
5:27 pm

This weekend, over 200,000 folks lastly returned to Worthy Farm to see Paul McCartney, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar carry out at Glastonbury. It additionally marked the return of immersive area Shangri-La after two years. Kaye Dunnings, the world’s artistic director, says that this yr’s version is a love letter to the community-led and queer areas which were significantly badly hit lately. “We’re taking over area for those who don’t even have a lot group round them,” she says.

Shangri-La is only one of over 30 areas at Glastonbury, which incorporates the principle performing phases (just like the Pyramid Stage and the Different Stage) and immersive areas like Unfairground. It’s sometimes a mixture of workshops, interactive reveals and musical performances. This yr, the main focus was on human connection, Dunnings explains – that includes VR know-how and activism-inspired installations.

The final couple of years have been a “wild time” for folks within the occasions business, Dunnings says, pointing to the closure of minority areas. Individuals have additionally missed out on typical pageant experiences. The temporary heading into Shangri-La was to spark these moments – “the characters that you just meet alongside the best way which can be so memorable, the moments that you’ve got at festivals,” Dunnings says.

Often planning begins in September, however this yr the go-ahead solely got here on the finish of January. This meant that there was lower than half the standard time interval to place the installations collectively, Dunnings explains. Since then, the artistic staff has been gathering materials like scrap metallic and wooden to construct the phases. This course of doesn’t simply slot in with Shangri-La’s ongoing sustainability focus, it exhibits folks what’s doable utilizing the objects round them. “Moderately than constructing a set and having it like a movie set, it’s actual objects,” Dunnings says. “And I believe that makes it extra tangible for folks.”

Additionally it is useful for the world’s tight manufacturing budgets, Dunnings factors out. “We realised that we had sufficient stuff and we didn’t want to purchase something,” she says. “You don’t must spend a great deal of cash in creating one thing only for one weekend – each single factor can be reused once more.” That features the banners adorning the world, which Dunnings says can be used for protests.

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A reminder that “folks energy is feasible”

Whereas the theme of reuse underpins the world’s set design, dialogue across the local weather “needed to take a little bit of a backseat, whereas everybody offers with the mass trauma [of the last few years]”, Dunnings says. “We discovered nothing is absolutely going to alter except folks come collectively.” With that concentrate on collective spirit, Dunnings curated areas for “lots of people that principally must know one another”.

At Swapermarket – billed as the world’s “premier cashless pawn store” – festival-goers may commerce their possessions for an eclectic vary of gizmos and devices. Designers contributed prints to  Shangrilart, a container studio the place folks have been in a position to choose up new print releases from designers corresponding to Anthony Burrill and Victoria Topping (and have them signed because the artists dropped by).

One other focus for Dunnings has been making a “welfare space”, designed to offer respite from the party-going of the broader pageant. Conceived by long-time Shangri-La contributors, the world gives an area “among the many insanity to cosy up”. It takes the type of a “bender” – sticks of hazel and a tarp – which may present shelter at evening. The organisers offered tea and dialog for weary festival-goers, whereas newspaper clippings gave historic context round points such because the Free Social gathering motion. “We wished to carry the elders of our group in to simply be there and speak about their experiences,” Dunnings provides.

One of the vital putting installations this yr was All Alongside The Watchtower, from Challenge Bunny Rabbit. The tensegrity-based construction is known as after Bob Dylan’s music warning concerning the world to return. It has been used as a part of protests earlier than and seized by police twice, in keeping with Dunnings. Due to its activist roots, the construction is a becoming addition to Shangri-La as a press release of “who we’re and what we’re about”, Dunnings says. “The centrepiece within the center reminds us all that folks energy is feasible,” she provides. Inclusivity has additionally been additionally a spotlight in areas like Nomad, the place London Trans Pleasure led discussions and workshops.

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“Expertise ought to be getting used to carry folks collectively”

Within the spring of 2020, when the federal government introduced lockdown restrictions, the Shangri-La artistic staff started work on Misplaced Horizon, billed because the world’s largest music and humanities pageant in VR. Held over a July weekend, the pageant noticed worldwide DJs and underground acts attend a two-day digital pageant. Designers together with Paula Scher and Morag Myerscough additionally contributed work to the occasion. This yr, the VR world was  dropped at life at Worthy Farm.

Holo-booth invited festive-goers to bop and carry out whereas their hologram was displayed on a giant display above the exhibit. Artist-robot Ai-Da painted Glastonbury performers and guests. SR Immersive created an set up known as 1012101, the place folks may resolve the thriller of two time travellers who’re sharing a message from the longer term. Whereas incorporating VR right into a stay pageant has had its challenges, corresponding to the price of the know-how, Dunnings explains that it has created a extra thrilling area as there are fewer bodily constraints.

The rise of VR has additionally helped Shangri-La to turn out to be a extra accessible expertise, she believes. It’s particularly helpful for anybody who has particular entry necessities or resides with a incapacity, for instance. “Expertise ought to be getting used to carry folks collectively,” she says. “They need to be allowed to return to a rave and dance – so we’re simply actually making an attempt to push actual tradition within the digital area.”

As Glastonbury finishes and the fields empty, the vital half for Dunnings is what comes after. What does she hope folks take from this yr’s Shangri-La? “It’s a few collective vitality, giving folks concepts and knowledge to do one thing else.” That might be something from immersing themselves in new tech experiences to creating artwork with different folks. “What’s taking place right here is so superb,” Dunnings says. “Nevertheless it’s actually about what occurs afterwards – that’s the entire level of what doing that is about for me.”