The stunning landscape of Lunan Bay in Angus will play host to a large-scale outdoor performance as part of the delayed Arbroath 2020+1 Festival celebrations.
Organisers have had to postpone the event three times due to the pandemic. But now they say finally “it’s the right moment”.
Tickets for Over Lunan are now on sale, with the impressive sound and light show to be held by the beach and dunes in September.
It was commissioned by Hospitalfield and Arbroath 2020+1 as part of the 700th celebrations of the Declaration of Arbroath.
Angus Farquhar, creative director of Aproxima Arts says: “We’ve taken quite a careful line. We’re just doing 50 tickets, and it’s one of the biggest dune areas in the UK. We’re very confident people will feel relaxed and have plenty space to move around.”
Having worked on a number of large-scale outdoor events, Angus says Over Lunan will be: “More intimate with quite a strong narrative thread running through it, which is new to me.”
‘Fell in love’
Angus explains: “I arrived at Lunan Bay and completely fell in love with it. And that led to a year of really extraordinary research.
“The rocky landscape north of Arbroath is world-class – just amazing geology and amazing relationship between landscape and sea scape. That’s been one of the joys for me; just getting to know this neck of the woods.”
Angus grew up in Aberdeenshire before moving south of Edinburgh with his family. While his work has taken him to many landscapes, he says he had never been to Lunan Bay before: “I think Angus keeps its secrets hidden sometimes.”
Delayed due to the pandemic, Over Lunan has taken Angus and his team on a 3,000-year journey from the shores of Lunan Bay to the ancient world of Mesopotamia.
Exploring tales that are all connected in some way by the sea, it takes in subjects such as, local history, ancient Mesopotamian myths, floods and a catastrophic mega-tsunami, right up to modern-day stories of people who continue to flee war in Syria.
Lunan Bay links
“It’s not going to be a history lesson,” Angus explains. “We are weaving different historic and mythical elements linked to this coastline.
“It’s all about coming with an open mind and finding out what we have discovered.”
Over Lunan runs from September 9 – 19. A radio play will be released to coincide with the shows. Attendees should come prepared for the weather as they will mostly be “on the move”. Book tickets here.
