Anarchic art installation wows the crowds

Performers hold huge crowds spellbound with spectacle on scaffolding

AN ASTONISHING display of anarchic street theatre, art and music held crowds spellbound in Newbury town centre last night (Saturday).

For 60 magical minutes tribal rhythms throbbed as travelling artists Page Blanche created startling works of art, only to rip them up seconds later and start again.

Like watching Rolf Harris on acid, the crowd stared, rapt, as huge images appeared apparently spontaneously, as the artists, sometimes hidden and sometimes appearing high in the air in scaffolding cells, slashed the air with paint rollers and brushes.

The audience, which packed the square as far back as the Cheap Street junction, applauded enthusiastically as each huge mandala or portrait appeared in seconds.

The consensus seemed to be that summer's Insectes Carnival had been a tough act to follow but that Page Blanche was sufficiently startling and innovative to do so.

Ayesha Curtis, aged 26, who lives in Newbury town centre, said: “It was amazing. I was really charmed by it and it's nice to have something in Newbury that brings everyone together like this, if even for a short while.”

For more on Page Blanche, and some incredible pictures, pick up next Thursday's Newbury Weekly News.