BBC Blast returns to Southampton
Published 21st July 2010. Updated, 15:20 22nd July
Creative young people aged 13 -19 will soon be able to unleash their imagination in a series of free workshops when BBC Blast returns to Southampton.
Blast is the BBC's youth creativity service. From first-timers to emerging artists, Blast gives you the chance to try out new skills, showcase your work and find out more about working in the creative industries. Each year the BBC takes Blast out on tour, giving young people the opportunity to get some hands-on experience and training in a wide variety of free multi-media workshops. Last year, Blast engaged over 170,000 teenagers in face-to-face activities throughout the UK.
After the successful visit in 2008, Blast will return to Hoglands Park on Thursday 5th August, building an impressive mobile creative village, complete with digital workshop spaces and separate performance area.
Over the next three days, young people with a passion for music, dance, fashion, film and art, can take part in a variety of free workshops, meet industry professionals, learn new skills, share ideas, use the latest technology and get creative, whatever their ability.
Highlights include:
- Work with hip-hop stars: Learn to beatbox and freestyle with MC Gleem and Ochs, or develop your skills with leading music industry producer and artist Baby J and ask questions about working the music business.
- Song Writing and Digital Music: Write and record a song in a morning with professionals from Ranch Recording Studio, plus Matt from SOCO leads a session on creating digital soundtracks and music for film.
- Better The Eastenders: Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the BBC's iconic soap opera by making and recording your own scene inspired by classic archive footage.
- Comic Strip Character drawing: With comic strip artist and illustrator Nich Angell, who has just been signed to Titan Books (publisher of comics and graphic novels including Batman, The Simpsons, Transformers and Tank Girl).
Other exciting workshops on offer include:
- Brush up your performance skills: try Bollywood Dance with dancer and actress Rakhi Sood, or get pop singing vocal coaching and audition tips from a professional voice coach.
- Use state of the art equipment to: make your own film documentary about the Hoglands Park Skateboard Festival, learn the basics of live sound engineering and help create a three camera video mix of a band, or try radio journalism, scriptwriting and programme making.
- Free your artistic side: try fashion design, photography, photostory comic strip and stop frame animation.
A selection of work created at the event will be shown at the Blast Talent Showcase on Saturday 7th August at 5.30pm, where you can get to see the future stars of the area showing off their new skills!
Julia Sherman, Editor for BBC Blast said
“The idea of being creative can be pretty daunting, if you don’t consider yourself to be particularly artistic. But in fact there’s some creativity in all of us and sometimes all you need is a bit of inspiration. BBC Blast is all about inspiring young people to explore their own creativity, through technology and interactivity.”
All workshops and showcases are free, for more details and to sign up please see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/events or email blast-southampton@bbc.co.uk.
The Southampton event runs on Thursday 5th (10.30am-6.30pm), Friday 6th (10.30am-5.30pm) and Saturday 7th August (10am-6.15pm).
BBC Blast will be working in partnership with Soco Music Project (www.socomusicproject.org.uk) for this event.
