Warwick Student Arts Festival (WSAF)

Warwick Student Arts Festival (WSAF) is an annual festival taking place at the University of Warwick. It was founded by Steve Pretty (then Societies and Student Development Officer sabbatical for the University of Warwick Students' Union) in 2004 with the aim of showcasing and celebrating all aspects of student art. It features a programme of events including plays (both published texts and student-written), musicals, dance, film, orchestras, choirs and bands, with a very heavy emphasis on collaboration across genres and artforms. All these events are free to attend, and the festival receives financial backing from both the Warwick Arts Centre and the University of Warwick Students' Union to ensure the festival can keep this free ethos. Alongside One World Week and Go Green Week, WSAF completes a series of annual student-run festivals at the University.

WSAF 2004

The first ever WSAF ran from the 20th to 24th of June 2004, and featured over fifty events. These took place in a number of venues including the Piazza, Students' Union and Studio Theatre within Warwick Arts Centre. Other events also took place around campus such as Rootes Field. The festival also allowed Warwick TV to display a number of student created films on a large screen. The festival was claimed to be the "largest student arts festival in Europe." [http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/features/student/break-dancing-at-warwick-uni.shtml]

WSAF 2005

The second year of WSAF again utilised the same venues and took place between the 19th and 23rd of June 2005. The Piazza gained a larger stage than that used in the previous year and more events took place than in the previous year.

WSAF 2006

WSAF 2006, from the 18th to 22nd of June, featured over 80 performances spread over many venues including the Piazza, The Students' Union and The Studio, with other shows taking place in more unusual venues around the Warwick campus. WSAF, in collaboration with Warwick Student Cinema hosted an outdoor film screening on Tocil field of "Finding Nemo". Other notable events included a prog-rock-style concert featuring the "University of Warwick String Orchestra" and student band "Replica X", and a performance from a student company from MIT.

WSAF 2007

Running from 24th to 28th June 2007, WSAF 2007 hosted 82 events. This included a screening of "Ice Age" in collaboration with Warwick Student Cinema on Tocil field. For the first year the festival hosted a music concert in collaboration with Love Music Hate Racism, featuring "Babyhead" and "The King Blues". There was also a 'Mad Hatters Tea Party' run by the [http://www.warwickartsoc.artshost.com Arts Society] and [http://www.sunion.warwick.ac.uk/socs/su369/ Craft Society] . Again venues included the Piazza, Students' Union and the Studio, with one-off shows occurring elsewhere on the Warwick campus, including a lift in the Humanities department. Despite torrential weather, only a few events were cancelled and audience numbers still remained high.

External links

* [http://www.wsaf.org.uk WSAF Website]

References

*BBC Coventry and Warwickshire. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/features/student/break-dancing-at-warwick-uni.shtml "Breakdancing at Warwick Uni"] , "BBC.co.uk", June 24 2004. Accessed July 17 2007.