Blitz festival Review

Earlier stuff on the Blitz festival at: http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_07_07_tash_lodge_archive.html#78897980

Blitzing through the Corporate Shite….

Blitz festival hit the streets of Manchester with an explosion of artful propaganda, actions and info, to offer an alternative vision to the Corporatised Commonwealth Games frenzy.

Blitz was organised by the Northern Arts Tactical Offensive, in collaboration with UHC arts collective, BEyondTV, i-contact, Fanclub, a Spacehijacker and many other individuals. NATO aims to bring together people working on social, cultural & political issues & to promote art that is spontaneous, conscious & public. The Blitz highlighted all that is street-level, independent and potentially illegal from the dissenting inhabitants of Manchester and dissolved the corporate spectacle.

AgiTATE Art Exhibition

Brazenly located in the middle of a budding mall “Great Northern”, this exhibition in the belly of the beast took over unused warehouse space and transformed it into the most beautifully presented and ideologically challenging collection of art work Manchester has seen. A curating team led by UHC, kept it all sailing the thin line between propaganda and art, enough to attract the most action-orientated activists and impress the least thoughtful critic on their way to the Virgin gym. Starting from the premise that the third world war will be fought in our heads, through images, on the airwaves (etc), the exhibition housed work from local graffiti artists to a “live sound installation” (read- “pirate radio station”). It will be on the web soon- link on Nato website. Over 2000 people visited in a week ­ many taking away radical and anarchist books. Simultaneously, The Body Politic, a radical feminist art exhbit, curated by Angel, ran the whole week in the Green Room.

Music and Film

Live outdoor music took over Great Northern Square, in Manchester’s monied heartland. The ramshackle stage, was so incongruous with the shimmering reflective aluminium surrounding that the whole event amounted to an action on consumer hell. The punk bands swearing loudly, the installation skate ramp under the “no skating” sign and the graffiti wall made it feel like a subcultural spectacle at times, but the real problem was the rain, as ever. Not to be thwarted, Blitz went on to 4 interactive & film events, hosted by BEyONdTV and i-contact.

March for Capitalism?

In keeping with the Blitz idea of undermining (with irony) ‘glossy’ manchester and confusing the tourists, the traditional protest was turned on its head with a march for capitalism. It began (after Skate Attack (see over) pleasantly with cucumber sandwiches and G and T’s in the park. An impeccably dressed, if slightly creased, rabble rallied round a 3-headed corporate monster. Despite us being for once on the same side, the police forced a ‘route’ upon us.

Saturday shoppers and tourists reacted interestingly to the placards ” Bomb Other Countries”, “The environment can kiss my ass” and others. Some people boo-ed because they saw through our heavy irony, others because they didn’t, some joined in because they were drunk, and others were genuinely bemused- with many mutterings of “Bombs not Bread?” to be heard. The three-headed monster was escorted out of town by the police, despite the fact that he encouraged shoppers to buy more and praised the Officers’ commitment to the public good. Meanwhile the rest of the crowd went off with FanClub to monopolise the queue at WHSmiths with monopoly boards.

Spoof Tourist Guide

As if the tourists were not confused enough already, an alternative guide to the city appeared for the Games, an exact replica of the Council tourist guide, it gave the other side to the city council spin and directed people to the Blitz events. It laid out some of the less media-worthy details around the Games- ie. the costly last minute makeovers, cuts in leisure services in under-resourced communities to finance the new sports facilities and a critique of capitalism as a whole, using Manchester as an example of how it has all gone a little wrong and just ain’t cutting it for da people. The council cottoned on in the end and began throwing their weight around as usual, threatening to sue places that displayed it for libel. However, “volunteers” in the Games purple shell suits with yellow vomity shoulder splats made sure that distribution was not adversely effected. Curiously adapted logos also began appearing all over the city’s billboards, city sweepers, vans and buses, as well as paint bombs and graffiti.

Double Strawberry Gotchya!

Finally the Biotech promotion event of the NorthWest Business club was seriously disrupted. First some noisy animal rights activists protesting about animal testing were dragged out. Then the Vice President of Biogen (Denmark) the world’s oldest biotechnology company was struck in the face by a double strawberry gateaux by Agent Sara Lee. Finally AstraZeneca’s keynote speaker was interrupted several times by before finally admitting that indeed his company did profit from people’s misery. Meanwhile some GM carrots and others outside the event made sure all the delegates at the Biotech Breakfast were fully aware that some Manchester residents were less than happy at the prospect of their city being a base for the dodgy biotech industry.

More info from http://www.nato.uk.net