Ipswich Spill Festival: Chance to burn bad news from the last year

People are invited to post "bad news from the last year" and watch it go up in flames as part of an arts festival.

Spill Festival of Performance will return to Ipswich from 27 to 31 October, after being postponed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The theme for this year's biennial event is "memory" and it will include large-scale art installations, family workshops and music.

It will be artistic director Robert Pacitti's final Spill Festival.

He is stepping down after 14 years and handing over to Robin Deacon.

It will not be the first time the festival has invited people to burn their bad news but after living through the global pandemic, being locked down and losing loved ones, organisers said it would help create a sense of "communion and togetherness".

Families can jot down things that have made them upset or angry and put them into boxes in The Hold.

It will then be set alight as part of the Pyre Parade on 30 October.

Mr Deacon said the Pyre Parade, which will make its way through the town to Christchurch Park, would be a "beautiful opportunity for us to come together again".

Other festival highlights include a 7m-wide (23ft) model of the Earth that will float from the ceiling of Ipswich Town Hall and sculptures that will "spin and hum, whirling like a swarm of fireflies or planets" on the Cornhill.

An Ipswich biscuit, created from a recipe submitted in a competition from the last Spill, will be launched and there will be a maze of colourful domes and tunnels on the town's Waterfront.

Works from previous editions will also be featured to tie in with the theme on the concept of memory.

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