Take A Big Splash of Fun in Newport’s Friars Walk This Weekend!

Newport’s Friars Walk will be totally dedicated to the Big Splash festival on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 July, with an incredible line up across two zones. John Frost Square and Usk Plaza will become giant stages for the big, the bonkers and the brilliant over the fun-filled weekend, with many roving acts making surprise appearances, too!

The Big Splash Information Point is also based here, manned by staff and volunteers from Newport Live who will be able to answer your Big Splash questions, and guide you to your favourite acts throughout the weekend – after all, there’s so much to see, you might need to plan!

Here’s a taste of a few of the delights in store:

• Able Mable is a showgirl with a flair for the dramatic and the ridiculous. Mable attempts to escape from handcuffs and loses half her costume in the process. She wields a whip wildly as she attempts to pop a balloon, accidentally magics things away and uses tape to fix her props whilst tangling herself and her volunteer up in it.  
• Barracwda samba percussion is a powerhouse of rhythm and pulsating beats, delivered with playful energy and their unique brand of sparkle.  Be ready to be hit by a wall of sound; funk, D&B and samba reggae, it’s hard not to move along in time!
• Choreographer Patrick Ziza’s dance explores African Dandyism as a celebration of style and cool as well as a concern for humanism, gender and identity in our increasingly divided society. Dandyism is centuries old.  For the original African Dandies, it represented male empowerment and post-colonial freedom. African Dandies appropriated the flamboyance of the 18th Century English & French gentlemen in defiance against slavery, referred to by some as a resistance movement.  By the 1960s it had become a phenomenon, a way to preserve a legacy of African culture. In “Dandyism” Patrick Ziza reminds us of the influence African culture continues to have and encourages us all to dress sharp and present our best selves.
• Honeymoon Balloon: Gary and Pel have two tickets to paradise and are about to embark on their first ever luxury hot air balloon vacation. What could possibly go wrong for the King and Queen of the skies? Binoculars at the ready as this cartoon couple take fiasco to a whole new height. This is a 20 minute live-action cartoon escapade for all ages to enjoy; featuring bear traps, sandbags and red carpet reveals plus our very own 12ft hot air balloon.
• Unstable Acts: Pete Anderson is a ‘Danger Comedian’ and juggler, one of Covent Garden’s finest street performers. His signature move is scaling a 10ft freestanding ladder, backwards, in a kilt.

Here’s the weekend line up in the Friars Walk Zone over the two areas:

John Frost Square – Saturday

• 11:00 – 11:25    Grumpy Unicorns   
• 11:00 – 11:40    Hippochondriac (Roving Act)
• 11:35 – 12:10    Defying Gravity Academy   
• 12:10 – 12:50    Great Insect Games   
• 12:50 – 13:20    Falconry Dismay   
• 13:30 – 13:55    Grumpy Unicorns   
• 13:50 – 14:30    Hippochondriac (Roving Act)
• 14:10 – 14:45    Defying Gravity Academy   
• 15:00 – 15:30    Falconry Dismay   
• 15:30 – 16:10    Great Insect Games
• 16:10 – 16:50    Hippochondriac (Roving Act)
• 16:20 – 16:50    Able Mable

John Frost Square- Sunday

• 11:30 – 12:00    Able Mable
• 12:00 – 12:35    Defying Gravity Academy
• 12:35 – 13:05    Unstable Acts
• 13:05 – 13:30    Grumpy Unicorns   
• 13:30 – 14:00    Able Mable   
• 14:05 – 14:35    Barracwda   
• 15:05 – 15:30    Grumpy Unicorns

Usk Plaza – Saturday

• 11:15 – 11:45    Unstable Acts
• 11:45 – 12:15    The Pigeons (Roving Act)
• 12:30 – 12:50    Honeymoon Balloon
• 13:50 – 14:20    Unstable Acts
• 15:10 – 15:40    The Pigeons (Roving Act)
• 15:50 – 16:10     Honeymoon Balloon

Usk Plaza – Sunday

• 11:45 – 12:15    Roo’d (Roving Act)
• 12:40 – 13:05    Dandyism
• 12:55 – 13:25    Roo’d (Roving Act)
• 13:45 – 14:05    Honeymoon Balloon

• To stay up to date with everything that is planned for Big Splash 2022 make sure you keep an eye on social media, facebook.com/bigsplashnewport and Twitter @BigSplashFest, and visit newportlive.co.uk/BigSplash.