Location: Roofless, Merchant City, Glasgow
Venue: Various 
Dates: 25 July - 29 July 2012

UZ Arts presented two major international shows for Glasgow's Merchant City Festival on 28th & 29th July 2012, for the benefit of thousands of attendees and participants.

The People's Tower
In June 2012, the Burns an' a' that! Festival and the people of Ayrshire witnessed and participated in the building of a giant lighthouse out of cardboard boxes and Scotch tape. Artist Olivier Grossetete will now be bringing his cardboard tower building to Scotland once again but this time in Glasgow as part of Roofless at the Merchant City Festival. Co--produced by our partners Conflux with funding by IN SITU.

The Zoo
Glasgow's Mischief La-Bas are bringing Professor Hildeberg's Hibernating Antarctic Zoo to Ingram Street. Highly educational and fascinating, the Professor's assistants will show the world his amazing new discoveries from his recent Antarctic explorations. As international producers, UZ Arts have arranged for the Zoo to tour Belgium, England, France and Austria. Co--produced by our partners Conflux with funding by IN SITU.

Download the Roofless and Surge Festival 2012 Brochure here 

Surge festival 2012 from The Arches on Vimeo.

Trailer for the SURGE festival 2012, Scotland's first festival of street arts, physical theatre and circus, set to take over the streets and venues of Glasgow from Mon 23rd - Sun 29th July.

For the full programme go to the Conflux website

Location: Roofless, Merchant City, Glasgow
Venue: Various 
Dates: 23 July - 24 July 2011

Welcome to “Roofless” the international outdoor programme for the Merchant City Festival. UZ Arts brought together artists from across Europe to create a programme full of Scottish and World premieres including a wide range of commissioned new work.  Festival attendees checked out the collision between graffiti artist KrikSix, lyricist Spye and gentleman camper Monty Cantsin in “Pimp my Caravan. From Slovenia we brought the “Invasion” - you won’t need to find them, they’ll find you. In Merchant Square festival attendees discovered a wealth of outdoor theatre indoors and the totally ridiculous but tasty world premiere of a Festival of Fudge.

And for a completely different take on the Merchant City and its people you could join in one of the artist led Dérive Tours.  Artist led tours of the city were a huge success in previous years. Roofless were delighted to offer four tours this year that took you on a unique journey through the Merchant City.  Every tour participant had the opportunity to contribute to an exhibition. Artist in residence at the Dérive project was photographer Jayne Morley who responded to and documented the tours. 

There was much much more all totally free and made possible through the support of Creative Scotland, IN SITU, Glasgow Life, Fraser Suites Glasgow and Merchant Square.

Download the Roofless @ Merchant City Festival 2011 Brochure here 

Location:   Glasgow's Merchant City
Venue:   Various
Dates: 22 July 2010 to 25 July 2010

The Merchant City Festival 2010 has changed its date and nature becoming a commissioning festival that presented a range of international work across all artforms to its largest audience yet. The Festival was programmed around the theme "Sous Les Pave La Plage" inspired by Situationist graffiti found in Paris in 1968.

Derive Tours were led by artists around the city and exhibitions mounted in temporary galleries.
The outdoor programme of Street Theatre music and market attracted over 70,000 people to the Merchant City.

www.merchantcityfestival.com

The festival came to an end with a remarkable sellout performance banquet where the audience were entertained with music, performance art, comedy and curry. They joined in a mass dance and created poetry. There were 6 poems - here is one. We're er... working.... on the transcripts.

Location:   Merchant City, Glasgow
Venue:   Various
Dates: 24 September 2009 to 27 September 2009

Attracting tens of thousands to Glasgow’s architecturally stunning and vibrant Merchant City, the Festival presents a cutting-edge programme featuring the cream of Scotland’s theatre, music, visual arts, comedy, dance, film, literature and fashion scene.

Discover opera singers in the courtyards and bars alongside thrilling street theatre from across Europe, top comedians and music from every genre in the bars and on the street. In addition, the Festival has a short film programme in conjunction with BAFTA Scotland that screens short films in unusual venues such as estate agents, hairdressers and opticians.

Merchant City Festival is one of Scotland’s most diverse platforms for the arts and has attracted a wide range of contributors from directors of Scottish festivals and national organisations to showcase the best of what’s happening in Scotland. An international context is provided by the Directors’ Choice programme that presents street artists selected from festival directors in Spain, France and Austria.

All this plus fantastic fashion shops and some of the best bars, clubs and restaurants all within the Festival zone.

Location:   Merchant City, Glasgow
Venue:   Various
Dates: 25 September 2008 to 28 September 2008

Glasgow’s Merchant City Festival enjoyed a host of sell-out performances throughout its four days. Despite some light showers over the weekend, tens of thousands flocked to Glasgow’s cultural quarter to sample the Festival’s largest programme in its seven-year history.

Highlights included dazzling parkour piece The Urban Playground from Prodigal Theatre and Gravity Style. This drew enormous crowds to Merchant Square who greeted the world class free-running skills of the companies which included the French originators of the artform with rapturous applause. Performances were followed by sell-out workshops which allowed audiences a chance to try their hand at parkour.

Audiences also descended upon King Street and Parnie Street for France’s Compagnie Lezards Bleus’ Two Urbanologists featuring the rock-climbing skills of Antoine Le Menestrel as he scaled the buildings on both streets whilst Jean-Marie Maddeddu produced sounds below to amuse audiences.

Top comedians Jenny Eclair, Jeremy Hardy and Jim Jeffries all played to capacity audiences whilst love was found at the Comedy Speed Dating – a new event for the Festival.

Both preview performances of Six Acts of Love at the Tron also sold out with good feedback for the play directed by Andy Arnold, as part of his first full season at the venue’s helm.

Liz Aggiss amused and perplexed in equal measures with her Guerrilla Dances which took place, unannounced at various performances throughout the Festival. Similarly unannounced, DotComedy’s madcap The Chain drew gasps from onlookers who didn’t realise they were witnessing a planned performance during the chaotic chain of events.

Austrian visual artist Christian Eisenberger’s thought-provoking installation Vietnam Scene dominated George Square on Thursday and Friday, before moving to the middle of Wilson Street for the weekend.

The Brand New You’re Retro Catwalk Show at Byblos helped ChildLine in Scotland to raise thousands of pounds with its stylish urban catwalk show featuring some of Scotland’s most exciting emerging names in fashion – William Chambers, Hilary Laing, Rebecca Torres and Mark Conlin, as well as collections from Boudiche and Brigitte. Fashion lovers were also treated to live models in the windows of many of Glasgow’s top fashion stores on Ingram Street, and an abundance of in-store activities.

Bailie Matheson, Chair of Merchant City Festival said: “What a brilliant few days. Merchant City Festival has grown and matured over the last seven years and significantly contributes to Glasgow's reputation as a contemporary cultural capital and a magnet for international audiences. I was especially thrilled by the quality and edginess of the parkour piece, The Urban Playground.”

Location: Merchant City, Glasgow
Venue: Various
Dates: 20 September 2007 to 23 September 2007

This year’s Merchant City Festival enjoyed record crowds and sell-out performances across much of its programme.

On Thursday, the opening day of the Festival, hundreds attended the Glasgow Rocks with All Saints fashion show at the Corinthian which saw Amber Le Bon mark her catwalk debut. DotComedy’s Get Lost set in a giant maze in George Square amused and bemused in equal measures across the four days with thousands passing through the hedges to discover what lay inside. Meanwhile, Salsa Celtica and East/West fusion band Kissmet performed to a packed Old Fruitmarket on Friday night.

In seemingly one of the brightest weekends of the summer, tens of thousands flocked to Glasgow’s cultural quarter to bask in the sunshine for the mixture of international outdoor theatre, live music across four stages, Scottish Opera in the lanes, French dance company Ex Nihilo and French and farmers’ markets. The same day also saw Ingram Street come alive with real models in the shop windows in some of Glasgow’s top fashion stores resulting in a sharp increase in sales for the retailers.

The BAFTA Scotland Winner’s Night on Saturday at GMAC presented six of the winning short films from 2006’s Awards. In a first for 2007, this year’s Winner’s Night featured a new award created especially for the Merchant City Festival – the Merchant City Festival Award for Innovation Specialising in Interactive Media. This was awarded to The Urban Model, a project devised by Glasgow City Council and Doug Pritchard at Glasgow School of Art Digital Design Studio. This excellent example of art, research and city development policy coming together presents a virtual Glasgow that will change as the real one is redeveloped which could be set free to Google Earth and beyond. The Audience Award went to Scene, a film about an aspiring actor’s inability to nail the role of a gangster with a conscience. One of its directors, Alex Boehm and Bryan Larkin who won the BAFTA Scotland Award for Best First Time Performance, were both in attendance.

There were also many sell-out performances in the comedy strand with Limmy, The Wee Man, Billy Kirkwood & Austin Low, Bumper Value Comedy, Kevin Bridges, Family Friendly Coach Tour and the Scottish Comedian of the Year Grand Final playing to packed houses. Fred MacAulay had several hundred people crying with laughter in the Old Fruitmarket on Saturday night.

Ex Nihilo from Glasgow’s twin city Marseilles astonished massive audiences with their brutally courageous dance around GOMA and in George Square.

Neil Butler, Artistic Director of Merchant City Festival and UZ Events said: “Scottish artists and performers shone alongside some of the most exciting theatre, music and dance that Europe has to offer. The programme seemed to strike a chord with the Glasgow audience who rewarded world class shows from home and abroad with the most exuberant and friendly of welcomes. The festival commission of dancers Ex Nihilo from Glasgow’s twin city Marseille produced an extraordinary performance that was a festival highlight for the capacity crowds who enjoyed their shows.”

Bailie Gordon Matheson, Chair of Merchant City Festival said: “I’m delighted with this year’s Merchant City Festival programme. The Festival has proved that it is a key player in Scotland’s cultural calendar and able to attract acclaimed artists and companies from throughout the world. The programme has attracted sell-out shows and brought more people than I have ever seen on to the streets of the Merchant City. Yet again we see how cultural programmes enrich our lives and do so much to bring audiences and customers to enjoy our flourishing city.”

www.merchantcityfestival.com

Location:   Glasgow's Merchant City
Venue:   Various
Dates: 20 September 2006 to 24 September 2006

Thousands flock to Glasgow’s Merchant City for most successful festival to date

Despite appalling weather on Sunday, crowds of people still flocked to Glasgow’s cultural quarter for the 2006 Merchant City Festival. Following four days of rare balmy September weather, the torrential rain on the last day of the festival did nothing to dampen the spirits of performers and audiences alike, instead outdoor events were transferred indoors to the Merchant Square and surrounding restaurants and bars. As a result no performances were cancelled and the number of people who attended the Festival exceeded 30,000 . Organisers of the event, a unique “festivals of festivals”, were today celebrating the most successful event to date. Across the five days of the 2006 Merchant City Festival (20 – 24 September) over 300 hundred events took place in 70 venues, (with many events fully booked, or sold out before the festival kicked off last Wednesday), and a major outdoor programme brought some of Europe’s leading Street Theatre companies to Glasgow.

This year also saw the continuing development of the Festival’s film strand, including Merchant City Mix, a showcase of short films produced by emerging Scottish film talent, which were screened in venues across the area. This year also saw the introduction of new Panel and Audience awards. BAFTA Scotland Director, Alison Forsyth, hosted the Scottish Film Talent Showcase screening, where capacity audiences filled the atmospheric GMAC film-screening centre, Café Flicker. Award winners were Hugo Cuellar’s Famine (Panel Award) Richard Smith’s Mono by (Audience Award). A Panel Commendation was also given to Hannah Robinson’s film In the Mood, which had previously been seen at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and LA Shorts, following its premiere at the EIFF. The Babbity Bowster confirmed its allegiance to the Auld Alliance, as whisky and red wine flowed convivially in the back courtyard, whilst packed audiences enjoyed an outdoor screening of classic Jacques Tati silent movies.

www.merchantcityfestival.com

Location: Glasgow's Merchant City
Venue: Various
Dates: 2002 - 2004

UZ Arts was commissioned by Glasgow City Council in 2002 to develop and produce an outdoor festival for the Merchant City area of Glasgow. UZ proposed that the Merchant City Festival draw upon the year round artistic activity in the Merchant City and expand the programme to feature some of the most exciting work being produced by Scottish based organisations. They worked with hundreds of artists and companies including many visual artists, comedians, musicians and dance companies including Scottish Ballet and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (SSO). As the festival developed, UZ invited other festivals such as the Magners Comedy Festival to contribute to the programme and use MCF as a sign post their own events. UZ added an international dimension to the Scottish programme through their membership of the European network IN SITU so that in the final year as producers the festival was hosting over 300 events in 60+ venues from many countries. In 2011, Glasgow Life assumed control of the festival.

www.merchantcityfestival.com