Town To Earth

The Town To Earth event on the South Downs at Bignor Park brings this pioneering song festival to a spectacular close.

Creatives Across Sussex presents another innovative performance by West Sussex community choirs taking song and voices into the environment. The Audience will be free to wander through the spectacular Bignor Park site, experiencing creative surprises along the way!

Last performed in 2012 as ‘Whispering Woods’ to sell out audiences and rave reviews, Town To Earth will give audiences a unique experience of the South Downs landscape against a soundtrack of live a cappella song.

There will be plenty to see as well as hear with stunning light installations and a fire garden. The performance will begin just as the sun sets and the musical programme will include world premieres of specially commissioned pieces on the Town To Earth theme Roots and Routes, by composers Ned Bigham, Daemonia Nymphe, Juliet Russell, Rebecca Askew and Emily Barden.

A key part of the Town To Earth programme has been its county-wide promotion of singing in the landscape with residents of urban communities creating and singing songs about their neighbourhood and its history, and then performing them at specially created events.

Earlier in the month the residents of the Needles estate Horsham formed a choir to sing of their unusual shipwreck heritage – The estate got its name from its use of timber salvaged from ships wrecked on The Needles on the Isle of Wight as building material for the first properties. Meanwhile, the residents of Burgess Hill sung stories of the homecoming of the World War II evacuees, soldiers and nurses, returning on the railway around which the town is built. These were performed at Burgess Hill and Wivelsfield stations and on the 20.16 to London Victoria!

Town To Earth On The South Downs brings all of these narratives together in a single location and much more besides with additional songs from the residents of Shoreham, Worthing, Chichester, Bognor Regis, Westergate, Singleton, Pulborough and Petworth.

The project has involved 180 singers and 120 of those will perform together and in smaller choirs dispersed throughout the gardens and woodlands of Bignor Park, in the twilit landscape to bring the Town To Earth series to a memorable close.

Ticket Information

Tickets for Town To Earth On The South Downs are on sale through http://wegottickets.com [search Town To Earth].

Visitors are asked to arrive at least fifteen minutes before the performance begins at Sunset 6.35pm, as there is a short walk from the car park on uneven ground, and a beautiful landscape with a few surprises to appreciate.

Performances involve standing and walking outdoors on uneven ground in low light for up to ninety minutes. Please bring a torch.

Town To Earth has been developed by Creatives Across Sussex in partnership with Mid Sussex District Council, Horsham District Council, Arts Council England, West Sussex Music, University of Chichester, South Downs National Park, Bignor Park, Govia Thameslink Trains, Southern Railway, Saxon Weald Housing Trust, Manor Field School, Burgess Hill, St Paul’s Catholic College, Burgess Hill, Arunside Primary School, Horsham, St Paul’s Catholic Primary School, Horsham, Kings Church, Horsham, Haywards Heath College and Horsham Gingerbread Company

If you would like further information about Town To Earth, please contact Paul Ackerley,
Creative Director.