adamsprinces from NV Miami is the major city in the state of Florida which metropolitan area as the forth largest urban area in the United States. This city Read More
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Ladies in a row waiting for a street parade to pass
The scallop-shell shaped Piazza del Campo, home to the famous Palio horse race
Making Ottoman candy at the Iftar festival in Sultanhamet, Istanbul
Presents 4 Yemoja, Salvador Bahia´s Yemoja Festival
Capoeira during the Yemoja Festival, Salvador Brazil
Devotees taking presents to the Casa de Peso 4 Yemoja, Yemoja Festival, Salvador Brazil
The city was agog, Yemoja Festival, Salvador Brazil
Delivering of presents Yemoja Festival, Salvador Brazil
Image of Yemoja, Yemoja Festival, Salvador Brazil
Initiation for new faihfuls. Yemoja Festival, Salvador Brazil
Moravian Mardi Gras festival
Priestess of Yemoja, Yemoja Festival, Salvador Brazil
early days at the festival
Fireworks, Festa del Redentore, Venice 2
Fireworks, Festa del Redentore 1
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Twenty years ago, Britain's tradition of harvest festivals had dwindled to little more than a few children taking cans of beans to school for charity. Today, the food festival has been reborn, and with new events springing up nationwide, the next few weeks are the highlight of the year for gourmets. Nicola Iseard picks the best Ludlow Food Festival 11-13 September Now in its 15th year, this festival has grown into one of the country's biggest. While many events take place throughout the town (sausage trails, beer tastings et al), the hive of activity is at the medieval castle, with more than 130 stalls selling everything from cheeses and chutneys to olive oil, cherry liqueur and truffles. There are also taste workshops, a chefs' cook-off and a "vegetarians versus carnivores" debate led by food writer and broadcaster Henrietta Green. Stay: The Feathers (01584 875261; feathersatludlow.co.uk), with its world-famous 17th-century timber façade, has doubles from £95, including breakfast ? foodfestival.co.uk; day tickets £7 adults, £1.50 children, family (two adults and up to four children) £16 Soil Association Organic Food Festival, Bristol 12-13 September With more than 150 exhibitors around the harbourside, this is the biggest organic festival in Europe. New for this year are the Kids' Taste Tent and the Street Food Bazaar, where you can sample Indian, Portuguese, Thai and Somalian delicacies. But there is far more to this festival than just eating - learn to make chutney at the Granny Skills Workshop or head to Bordeaux Quay for some organic cooking tips from celebrity chefs including Sophie Grigson. There is even a fringe, with live music and dance shows. Stay: Rosebery House (0117 914 9508; roseberyhouse.net), a charming B&B tucked away in a quiet Georgian crescent within walking distance of the harbour, has doubles from £89 including breakfast ? theorganicfoodfestival.co.uk; admission price: £5 adults (of which £1 is donated to the Soil Association), children free Abergavenny Food Festival 19-20 September It's the biggest date in Wales's gourmet calendar. As well as around 170 stalls selling local Welsh produce, there will be tutored tastings with top chocolatiers and cider-makers, talks and masterclasses by famed foodies such as Antonio Carluccio, Levi Roots and Valentine Warner, and plenty of family activities, including sessions on making Welsh pancakes. Sugar rush made you giddy? Get some fresh air on a field trip led by famed forager Miles Irving. Stay: The Angel (01873 857121; angelhotelabergavenny.com) is classy and central, with doubles from £85 including breakfast ? abergavennyfoodfestival.com; day ticket from £5 for adults (children free) Manchester Food and Drink Festival 1-12 October This event takes over more than 100 venues across the city, so it's hard to know where to start. In St Ann's Square, a host of local producers will be setting up stalls and celebrity chefs including Michael Caines will cook live. Go on a foodie tour of the Northern Quarter, or learn how to distinguish a Semillon from a Sancerre at the Wine Festival on 2 October. The festival is also hosting the first Manchester Whisky Festival, on 10 October, where you can taste your way around Japan, the US and even India. Stay: Velvet Hotel (0161 236 9003; velvetmanchester.com) is a gorgeous boutique hotel on bustling Canal Street, with doubles from £115, room only ? foodanddrinkfestival.com; many events free, other prices vary Slow Food Market, London Various dates London and slow aren't two words you normally associate, but every autumn the capital holds a series of slow food markets at the Southbank Centre, celebrating ethical and tasty grub. The first was held this weekend, and the next runs from 18-20 September (there are three more markets after that). Sample and buy foods from around the world, such as scallops from Dorset, Colchester Native Oysters from Mersea Island and exotic spice blends from the Levant. Stay: Bermondsey Square Hotel (0870 111 2525; bermondseysquarehotel.co.uk) is a new hotel in a vibrant neighbourhood within walking distance of the Southbank Centre, with doubles from £119, room only. The Hoxton (020 7550 1000; hoxtonhotels.com) offers rooms from £59, and also releases five rooms a night for £1 during seasonal sales. ? southbankcentre.co.uk; admission free Liverpool Food and Drink Festival 13-20 September Now in its second year, Liverpool's Food and Drink Festival involves more than 50 of the city's top bars and restaurants, such as The London Carriage Works and Italian Club Fish. Throughout the week they will be offering discounts and laying on themed menus, such as "Fish for Friday" and "Organic and Locally Sourced". For a chance to sample dozens of them in one location, make a beeline for Sefton Park on 13 September, where there will be food sampling, cookery demonstrations and opportunities to buy. Stay: Hope Street Hotel (0151 709 3000; hopestreethotel.co.uk) is central and offers stylish rooms from £120, room only ? liverpoolfoodanddrinkfestival.co.uk; many events free Nottingham Food and Drink Festival 16-20 September Nottingham is hosting its first food and drink festival this month. Alongside more than 30 street stalls, all eyes will be on the Chef's Theatre in the Market Square, where you can watch celebrity chefs including James Martin and James Tanner whip up all manner of feasts in Ready Steady Cook-style cook-offs, as well as masterclasses and demos by local producers and suppliers. There will also be cocktail-making sessions, women-only beer tastings and paella demonstrations in restaurants and bars across the city. Stay: Hart's (0115 988 1900; hartsnottingham.co.uk) is a boutique hotel just five minutes' walk from Nottingham city centre, with rooms from £140, room only. ? gotonottingham.co.uk/foodanddrinkfestival; many events free York Festival of Food and Drink 18-27 September Following the theme Crude Food, the focus of this year's festival is on simple food, and there will be urban and riverbank forages and slow food workshops running throughout the 10 days in locations across the city. Other highlights include Introduction to Wine sessions and a Death by Chocolate event at Middlethorpe Hall. Men may prefer to keep themselves amused with the Ale Trail, where they can sample the best of the 200 pubs York has to offer. Stay: The Blue Bridge (01904 621193; bluebridgehotel.co.uk) is a five-minute walk along the river from the city centre and offers doubles from £59, room only. ? yorkfoodfestival.co.uk; many events free Eat Bute, Isle of Bute, Scotland 11-13 September Held at Mount Stuart, a grand house set in 300 acres of lush woodland and coastal gardens, food fests don't get much more picturesque than this. The event showcases the finest produce from Bute and the surrounding areas of Argyll, and highlights the importance of eating food that is "good, clean and fair". Stalls are wonderfully varied, from cockles and chutneys to jellies, handmade fudges and sticky desserts. There are also lots of food-themed family events. Getting there: The island is served by two regular ferry links from the mainland, from Colintraive and Wemyss Bay. See calmac.co.uk for timetables and prices Stay: Jacqueline's Property Services (01700 503906; buteselfcatering.co.uk) offers a range of carefully chosen holiday homes across the Isle of Bute, from the towns to more rural areas. A three-night stay in a two-bedroom flat costs from £245 ? eatbute.com; many events free Narberth Food Festival, Pembrokeshire 26-27 September Learn how to make the perfect nattou-maki roll at a sushi workshop, and whip up a trophy-winning sticky toffee pie in the pudding competition at what claims to be the friendliest food festival in Wales. If that all sounds like too much work, check out the chef demos (Angela Gray is in the line-up), or grab a glass of local wine and watch the live music and street entertainers. Stay: Little Loveston (01834 891261; littleloveston.co.uk) is a group of four stone cottages set around a large courtyard, a short drive from Narberth. Prices from £290 a week (for a one-bedroom cottage) ? narberthfoodfestival.com; day pass £2.50 adults (children free) Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festivals Suffolk 26 September to 4 October Now in its fourth year, the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival is all about celebrating local produce. Alongside the main festival at Snape Maltings, where there will be more than 70 exhibitors, there are fringe events at farm shops, breweries and nature reserves across East Suffolk. In between farm walks, game butchery workshops and behind-the-scenes tours (don't miss the smokehouse at Pinneys of Orford), check out the cookery demonstrations with Fergus Henderson and Stuart Oetzmann. Stay: Snape Holiday Cottages (07802 878172; snapecottages.co.uk), two miles from Snape Maltings, offers three nights' self-catering at the pretty Victorian cottage The Sheilings from £310 (sleeps up to six). ? aldeburghfoodanddrink.co.uk; admission to festival at Snape Maltings £5 Shetland Food Festival 2-11 October If you fancy venturing further afield, the windswept Shetland Isles are holding their second food festival. There will be a producer market stocked with seafood, top-quality meats and local delicacies such as seaweed oatcakes and black potatoes. There will also be a food theatre with demonstrations and cook-offs. For something a bit different, sign up for a workshop to learn how to make traditional bannock. Getting there: Ferries from Aberdeen to Lerwick take 12-13 hours (0845 6000 449; northlinkferries.co.uk) Stay: Glover Lodges (01950 477596; gloverlodges.co.uk) has lodges sleeping four on the beautiful coastal location of Fladdabister from £580 a week ? shetlandfoodfestival.com; admission £3 adults, £1 children Kendal Food Festival, Cumbria 24-31 October Cookery schools, delicatessens, wine shops and farms will be throwing their doors open to the public next month for Kendal's first festival of food. Have a go at sausage, burger and kebab making at Sillfield Farm in Endmoor; see how coffee is roasted at Farrers Coffee in Kendal; learn what makes organic wines special at Organico in Staveley; and sample lip-smackingly good cakes at the Baba Ganoush deli in Kendal. Stay: Cottages4you (0845 268 1560; cottages4you.co.uk) has a range of properties in the Kendal region. Three nights' self-catering at Low Shepherd Yeat Farm in Crook starts from £599 (up to eight sharing) ? southlakeland.gov.uk; many events free Special Interest Speyside Whisky Festival, Banffshire 25-28 September Dufftown's twice-yearly festivals attract whisky connoisseurs from far and wide. Speyside is home to more than half the whisky distilleries in Scotland, and even those that don't usually welcome visitors will be opening their doors for the festival. Serious tasters up for a challenge should sign up for the Seven Stills Bus Tour, for a dram at no fewer than six distilleries in the area. For something more sedate, learn how to pair whisky with food, discover how whisky distillers and smugglers lived off the land on a guided excursion to the Braes of Glenlivet, and make some last-minute purchases at the closing Dreg's Party. Stay: Tannochbrae Guest House (01340 820541; tannochbrae.co.uk), in the centre of Dufftown, has six cosy rooms from £65, including breakfast ? spiritofspeyside.com; prices vary Great British Cheese Festival, Cardiff 26-27 September Held within the grounds of Cardiff Castle, the enormous, self-proclaimed "focal point of the cheese lovers' calendar" showcases a mind-boggling 400 British and Irish sheep, cow, goat and buffalo cheeses, including the winners of the British Cheese Awards, which are held on 25 September. Pop along to the masterclasses, which take place at the School of Big Cheeses, made up of the Apprentices' Hall, for "wannabe experts", and the Dragon's Den, for "serious fanatics". Cheesed out? Hunt for hot chilli chutney and Hebridean liqueur, two of the many other products on show at the market. Stay: Jolyons Boutique Hotel (02920 488775; jolyons.co.uk) has six lavishly furnished rooms from £99, including breakfast ? thecheeseweb.com; two-day admission £8.50 adults, children £6.50 The Big Apple, Herefordshire 10-11 October Every year since 1989, the communities of Herefordshire's tiny parishes have put together a collection of small rural events based in and around the village of Much Marcle to celebrate the region's favourite fruit - the humble apple. Choose from cider orchard open days, apple pressing and cider making demonstrations, cider and perry trails, apple identification talks, food markets and lunches. On the Sunday you can ride off that cider hangover with the Big Apple group bike ride through the county's orchards. Stay: Great Moor Court (01531 66032; muchmarcle.net/accommodation) is a charming 300-year-old working farmhouse (complete with several apple orchards) with just two guest bedrooms, from £60, including breakfast ? bigapple.org.uk; many events free Norwich Beer Festival Featuring a staggering 200 real ales from Britain's independent breweries, more than 25 varieties of cider and perry from East Anglia and the West Country, and a selection of draught and bottle beers from continental Europe, the Norwich Beer Festival is a highlight for beer lovers across the nation. First held in 1978, the festival takes place in the St Andrew's and Blackfriars' Halls, where visitors have to purchase a glass for around £2 and beer tokens on entrance (each token is worth 10p and average strength beers will be around £2.50 a pint), then it's all about tasting, tasting, tasting. Stay: 38 St Giles (01603 662944; 38stgiles.co.uk) is a stylish B&B in the heart of Norwich with just five bedrooms, from £120 for a double norwichcamra.org.uk


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With screenings in forest huts, ruined castles and wartime tunnels, and birds of prey as pre-movie entertainment, Jersey's film festival is like no other We're in a castle. A heady smell fills the air: cider and mildew and money. A fair old noise, too: gulls mew, waves hiss from the sea outside, a distant cow makes itself known. The lights go down and the opening credits roll on Faintheart, closing night screening at the Jersey Branchage film festival. Last year's inaugural event - christened after an archaic local hedge-trimming bylaw - was a tiny, deluxe miracle: lavishly staged, creatively designed, reasonably priced and stuffed with decent movies (first night was Man on Wire, which went on to win the Oscar for best documentary; Faintheart had closed the Edinburgh film festival two months earlier). But it was dreamt up in what seems today like a different world, one in which the island's backbone of bankers were only too happy to pump thousands into a nascent boutique film festival. They'd never be in the mood to repeat the trick, right? Wrong. Somehow, creative director Xanthe Hamilton has managed to coax enough cash from wallets to stage Branchage 2009 in early October. Perhaps it's a smart gamble. Film-going, that traditional recession pursuit, is on the up. Short breaks, too, particularly those not crippled by the euro exchange rate. And maybe there's a film festival niche to be filled, too? Branchage boasts the beaches of Cannes without the bunfights, the seafood of Venice without the crowds, the indie chic of Sundance without the 18-hour flight, the ease of Edinburgh without the drizzle. Except that it's not, of course, a festival for the industry. Most movies on show had already been released - not in Jersey perhaps, but then locals aren't quite the target market either. Rather, this is a film festival for punters who'd like to keep up with what's on, but without the leisure or location to trot off to London's Curzon Soho or ICA a couple of times a week. The only remaining obstacle is the guilt factor: should you really be going to the flicks on your hols? Generally it's a bit of a last resort, reserved for when the weather turns against you. Hamilton and her team have cunningly pre-empted this vacation shame by expanding the list of venues to overlap with the sites you might viably visit if you're already holidaying on Jersey. So, last year, haunting second world war documentary footage was shown in the Jersey War Tunnels, The Wicker Man in Gorey Castle, and Faintheart at Mont Orgueil, which was knocked up in the 13th century for King John (the cider was free, and lethal, the gulls excited by the harris hawk laid on for pre-screening entertainment). This year they've been even more imaginative: Lars von Trier's forest horror, Antichrist, is being screened in a woodland hut; lyrical farming documentary, Sleep Furiously, in a dairy barn; Werner Herzog's cautionary tale of animal affection, Grizzly Man, in the Durrell Wildlife Centre. On Saturday night British Sea Power take over the rather splendid Opera House to play a live soundtrack to Robert J Flaherty's 1934 salty docudrama Man of Aran. The festival HQ, the Barclays Wealth Spiegeltent, which doubles as box office, delegate centre and party venue, is on the harbourside in St Helier - the island's main town and perhaps a touch commercially over-developed (47 different banks have branches there). So though there are some great, iced-white hotel blocks on the front, it's probably worth staying off the beaten track. We stayed about 15 minutes drive from St Helier in a self-catering flat in the stables wing of Samares Manor. It was delightful: the slightly functional interior softened by the location, with friendly donkeys to greet in the field outside in the morning (and to hear snuffling in the night), and elderly horse drawn carriages on display across the courtyard. Start making your way round the coast anti-clockwise, and the terrain becomes more wooded and dramatic: grand, gorge-like cliffs, sometimes with swooping dips down to lovely coves; Rozel beach, studded with pinkish scallop shells, is especially nice. The best known attraction is the Wildlife Centre, overseen by Gerald Durrell's widow, Lee, since his death in 1995. It's a must see, whether you're watching a film there or not, with enclosures tailored for expansive living, rather than showcasing of animals. But if you're tackling Branchage in any concerted way, you'll have to curb your sightseeing. In fact the most I did was vicarious - through watching the documentary Southern Softies, in which John Shuttleworth journeys over the island, trying to discover whether southerners are softer - a companion piece to It's Nice Up North, shot on the Shetlands. It was the most peculiar thing on the Branchage programme: an incomplete, uncertain enterprise, introduced by Shuttleworth's alter ego, Graham Fellows, and screened to a huddle of ambivalent locals, some of whom featured in the film. Though obviously affectionate, there was something perverse, at heart, about the whole thing - a little like Sacha Baron Cohen premiering Borat to a room full of Kazaks. Brave, yes. Fun, too. Foolhardy, almost. Perfect for Branchage. ? Branchage Jersey International Film Festival 2009 (01534 613 770, branchagefestival.com) runs from 1-4 October. Samares Manor (01534 870 551, samaresmanor.com) offers self -catering cottages and two-bedroom apartments from £592 per week. Flybe (0871 700 2000, flybe.com) flies to Jersey from several UK airports from around £66 rtn inc tax.


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The Sunburn festival has revived Goa's party scene, attracting Indian DJs and domestic tourists with its laid-back atmosphere and broader music policy The verdict was clear. "It's not like it used to be", my ageing dreadlocked companion croaked in my ear as the DJ Simon Dunmore, tonight's headliner, emerged through a cloud of dry ice. He flashed me an ambiguous smile and headed off to lose himself in the sea of grooving partygoers. It was the magical hour on Candolim beach in central Goa, the Indian sun hovered over the horizon, casting a golden hue over the 5,000-strong crowd. This all felt very familiar, but it was not one of the legendary "sunrise" parties, the underground, full moon events of the 1990s. The three-day Sunburn Festival is quite different. Fully licensed, it starts well before the sun has set and is touted as the new face of Goa's electronic party scene. Purists will protest at the commercialisation, but the boons of staging parties in Goa remain the same, not least the international nature of the crowd. What has changed is that the majority are no longer from Israel, Britain or Japan. They are Indian. Since the boom in domestic flights, the rich and beautiful of Delhi and Mumbai have made Goa their mecca. And, unlike their predecessors, the young crowd clearly lacks the appetite for mind-altering substances which tarnished the reputation of the party scene in the late 1990s. There is a scattering of what remains of the original Goan trance brigade, happily raving with tattoos of Indian gods adorning lithe, bronzed bodies, but they are relics of an era that disappeared long before the Sunburn festival started two years ago. The inclusive, talk-to-anyone atmosphere prevails, but the music is more bouncy, with less of the hypnotic, trance-induced frenzy. Pointedly, given the early doors policy of the Goan authorities, which prohibits music after 10pm, the hallucinogenics and spliffs have been replaced by beer and organic Indian snacks. Strolling around the site, it was clear that a lot of love and attention to detail had been lavished on Sunburn. Two elevated stages with state-of-the-art sound and lighting rigs would not have been out of place at any European festivals. Set only 50 metres back from the Arabian Sea, the site also has all of Goa's natural ingredients - sand and palm trees. But, as Goan Gil famously said, parties must be more than a "disco under the coconut trees". For the English hippie godfather of the party scene who "discovered" Goa in the early 1970s, it was about nature, the inner self and connecting with the world. The litmus test for Sunburn is whether a commercial festival that ends before it has really started can hope to recreate this vibe. Candolim is not a divine location - it usually attracts package tourists. The heart of the Goan party scene was further north, in the hippie hangouts of Anjuna, Vagator and Arambol. But Sunburn is trying to create a new model of a clean and safe environment for the more mainstream tourist. The music has also broadened, with house, live acts and progressive trance rather than 150 beats-per-minute 90s Goan trance. The promoters, an Indian collective called Submerge, are serious about their music, flying in top international artists. In 2008 the London-based record label Defected took over a stage to open the festival. What is more interesting is that Sunburn's reputation is being built largely by the new wave of Indian DJs such as DJ Pearl and Jalabee Cartel. But staging a legal event of this size is no easy task and this is the first of its kind in the country. It has taken place against the tourist-visiting odds, given the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year. And however sparkling this new Goa might be, it still falls victim to the old way of thinking. Midway through the second night, as the crowd were being whipped up into a frenzy, the music ground to a halt. It wasn't a power cut. Local residents were kicking up a fuss. The scratching of the necessary backs had fallen short. But only half an hour before curfew-time, the speakers crackled back to life, and a huge roar went around the site as people made up for lost dancing time. ? This year's festival takes place 27-29 December, sunburn-festival.com, tickets around £40 for three days. Air India flies from London Heathrow to Dabolim in December from £370 return. Aashyana Lakhanpal, set in tropical gardens with a meditation room, sleeps four in one of three cottages from £575 per week, +91 8322 489225, aashyanalakhanpal.com.


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The world's largest outdoor art festival has added a surreal twist to a swathe of central Japan and played a major part in revitalising an isolated, depopulated region. Danielle Demetriou reports The scene is pure postcard Japan. Layered mountain peaks shrouded in forests capped with smoky wisps of clouds and tiered rice paddies, a dazzling shade of green. So far, so haiku-inspiringly perfect - apart from one unexpected intrusion on the landscape. Centre stage in the tableau of pastoral perfection is a square frame the size of a small house from which are suspended dozens of giant wooden pencils in a rainbow of colours. Contemporary art may be a surprise find in a remote corner of the mountainous Niigata prefecture in central Japan, but the isolated rural region - famous for its heavy snowfall, rice paddies and declining elderly population - is the unlikely setting for the most innovative of art projects, the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial. It is the world's biggest open-air art festival and the fourth Triennial opened last weekend with more than 350 artworks by artists from 38 countries. Sculptures, paintings and installations pepper the landscape and are set amid rice fields, forests, in abandoned schools and vacant wooden houses. Visitors will stumble across trees with staring blue eyes in the heart of a forest and life-sized red figures dotting the rice fields, a postmodern zen garden fashioned from rusted steel refuse and a sea of psychedelic canvases in a school gymnasium. The festival's geographical dimensions are as vast as its creative ambitions: the 760 sq km site spans a larger area than the 23 wards of central Tokyo, making an exploration of the region a giant art treasure hunt. The best way to explore? Jump on a train in Tokyo for the two-hour ride to Tokamachi and join one of a number of daily group tours, or simply pick up a rental car at the station along with a festival "passport" that provides access to all the artworks, a much-needed art map of the region and an English-language guidebook. Most visitors use Tokamachi, a small, sleepy city of wide streets, low-rise buildings and lowkey restaurants as a starting point for their art explorations. Opting for the freedom of driving, I set off on a four-wheeled art-searching mission in the area last weekend, negotiating steep winding lanes lined with hydrangea that curved around vivid green rice fields and dense forests set against the layered silhouettes of mountain peaks. The beauty of the landscape is astonishing and distracting, and so, even though the artworks are indicated by yellow festival road signs, it came as a surprise when one suddenly shifted into focus: a small wooden Hansel and Gretel-style house covered not in sweets but small circular mirrors shimmering in the wind. An elderly man with a farmer's cap was sitting in his makeshift office beside his car and stamped my passport so I could join a young Japanese couple already exploring the artwork. The house - created by Harumi Yukutake - had no back wall, just a space opening onto a view of the fields, reflected endlessly in the thousands of mirrors that lined the inside walls. Further along from the frame of giant pencils, by the Cameroon artist Pascale Marthine Tayou, were mirrors and golden pebbles; and a vast abstract window frame in a field with a curtain flapping in the breeze. The area the festival covers is so vast that even with a couple of days it is impossible to see all the artworks so, rather unscientifically, I chose to stop at places I liked the sound of or whenever a yellow sign or roadside artwork caught my eye. The works are varied, but of a consistently high quality, with a few names recognisable from galleries in London, Paris and New York. The piece I really wanted to see was a traditional wooden house which has been transformed by Antony Gormley for his piece, Another Singularity. I slipped off my shoes to step inside the quiet, dark space, where the interior division walls have been removed and the building's shell filled with countless bungee ropes, arranged to create the outline of a human form in the centre. I caught a minute with Gormley as he was opening the artwork during my visit. "I spent time drinking sake with some locals and the former residents of the house last night," he said. "They were all lovely and I was delighted at their reaction. One 83-year-old woman who was born in this house lay down on the floor and stared at it for a long time before declaring that she liked it." Many of the empty buildings taken over by artists were once schools, an eerie fact that has been used to appropriate effect by some of the artists involved, such as Christian Boltanski and Jean Kalman, a French pair who have created a sinister world of empty classrooms, where fans whirl and the ominous sound of a heartbeat plays. I left clutching the unexpected souvenir of a CD recording of my own slightly raised heartbeat. In another, Tomoko Mukaiyama has made an ethereal, swirling maze of 12,000 white silk dresses, with red clothes stained by the menstrual or "moon blood" at the centre. And elsewhere Seizo Tashima, has created a sculptural version of a pop-up picture book from candy coloured driftwood, which tells the tale of its last three young pupils. That so many vacant buildings are available is a rather sad outcome of the area's depopulation. As in much of rural Japan, the decline in the farming industry has carried youngsters away to the cities, leaving these remote villages with a shrinking elderly community to fend for itself. I stopped for lunch back at Tokamachi for a mixture of freshly made soba noodles, tempura and vegetables. Although most of the human life I had seen while driving between the artworks were older folk, here it was clear from the clientele that the area has changed from a sleepy backwater since the triennale launched here in 2000. Older locals sat beside scruffy Tokyo art students and European artists. The next stop on my art route was Fukutake House - another former school in Myokayama village which now hosts nine of the leading Asian art galleries. Its original green boards, lockers and stark corridors, are offset by vast psychedelic etchings in the gymnasium, a sea of butterflies floating below a classroom ceiling and camouflage paintings on the walls of the former staff storage room. Outside the school, a crowd of smiling elderly villagers was standing behind a stall serving homemade soy powder rice cakes, homegrown tomatoes and mountain vegetables in miso, and a slightly less palatable pond weed delicacy. Among them was Kazuko Kokai, a 66-year-old grandmother dressed in a flowery apron and pink wellies, with a bowl of potatoes in hand who burst into laughter when I asked how she felt about the invasion of artists. "Modern art? I haven't got a clue what it means," she said. "I went to this school as did my grandparents, my husband and my children. But the school closed down many years ago and there are only three children in the village today. So if artists want to come and use this building and other spaces and it brings people to the area, then we welcome them." It has not always been that way. In 1996 Fram Kitagawa, a well-known Tokyo gallerist, was asked by the prefectural authorities in Niigata to come up with a proposal to bring art to the region to help revitalise it. But according to Kitagawa, it was not a smooth journey. "Every single politician in the area was opposed to the festival at first. It took four years and about 2,000 meetings to change their minds. But art can play a very important role in revitalising elderly people who have lost their hope, identity and vision of the future." Light houses Art exhibits cum hotelsTo take your experience of the exhibition to a more involved level, it's possible to spend the night in two of the artworks ? homes that were turned into hotels by international artists for previous exhibitions. At the Dream House, Serbian artist Marina Abramovic has transformed an atmospheric, rickety old wooden house, with four single bedrooms. I ate dinner at a low table with three other guests (all young, art-loving Tokyoites) before taking a dip in a hot copper bath filled with fresh herbs. Next, I was dressed in a red all-in-one body suit, not dissimilar to a Teletubbies outfit, and led to the "red room". Centre stage was a coffin bed, with a pillow made from marble (and thankfully no lid) where I spent a surprisingly comfortable night until the sun came shining through the red-tinted window, infusing the room with the shade. All guests are asked to record their dreams in a big black book beside the bed. At the second hotel, The House of Light, created by American artist James Turrell, a modern-built traditional Japanese house sleeps 12 in three rooms. It's a haven of clean lines, atmospheric light installations and traditional tatami floors, with a large bath and valley views. After a delicious bento box dinner, we unrolled the futons in the main room, lay down ? and waited for the rain to stop so we could press the big button in the hall that would roll back the ceiling to reveal a perfect signature Turrell sky space. It took several attempts of rushing outside each hour to see if it was still raining, but eventually the skies cleared and we were able to lie back on our futons and drift in and out of sleep while watching clouds rolling endlessly through a square frame. Another accommodation option, though unrelated to the festival, is Hinanoyado Chitose, one of the best hot-spring "onsen" inns in the region, in Matsunoyama Onsen village. The festival website lists several more places to stay. ? The House of Light (+25 761 1090, www11.ocn.ne.jp/~jthikari/e) sleeps up to 12, £130 per night, plus £20 lodging fee per person. Dream House (+25 595 6310), £40 per person per night; dinner is £18. Rooms at the Hinanoyado Chitose onsen (0081 25 596 2525; chitose.tv) start at £81 per person for BB&D. Book via the English language website japanican.com Way to goFestival information Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (0081 25 595 6688, echigo-tsumari.jp/2009en) is on until 13 September but many of the works are permanent. A passport giving access to all exhibits is £23, available from the central information desk at Matsudai No-Butai (+25 595 6180), Tokamachi station or any of the artwork entrances. Getting there Japan Airlines (020-7618 3224, jal.com/en) flies London-Tokyo from £577 rtn inc tax. Tokyo to Tokamachi is £54 each way by train, or to Echigo-Yuzawa at £45 each way. See jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/e-norikeyin.html for times and prices. Getting around Rent a car from Toyota at Tokamachi or Echigo-Yuzawa (+3 5954 8020, rent.toyota.co.jp/en/index.html). There are also daily group tours around the site (echigo-tsumari.jp/2009en/info/tours). Private English language guides cost £163 for an eight hour tour or £117 for four hours. Further information £1 = 153.41 yen. All prices approximate. Japan National Tourist Organisation: 020-7734 9638, seejapan.co.uk.


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Gigs on steam trains, chilling in a 1950s buffet car and fanzine workshops ... is Indietracks the most eccentric festival ever, wonders James Walsh The guard at Butterley station was awaiting the shuttle that would ferry fans to Swanwick station for Indietracks, a music festival combining indiepop and steam trains that took place last weekend in Derbyshire. But he was merrily oblivious to the occasion. "I don't know anything about indie music," he said. "Whatever that is." Both stations are part of The Midland Railway Centre, in Ripley, Derbyshire, which is staffed by volunteers, with the proceeds from the festival going towards the upkeep of the site and trains. Indietracks isn't the only event associated with the centre - there's a Doctor Who Convention in September. "Are the Daleks coming?" asked the guard. "I guess they'd need the disabled ramp." British music festivals have undergone a pop explosion in the past decade. As recently as 1998, Phoenix, then one of the largest, was cancelled due to a general lack of interest ? compare this to the legion of multi-faceted beasts that now operate every weekend from June to September, from the ritual of Glastonbury to the chaos of Bestival. But it's hard to imagine that any are quite as eccentric as Indietracks. It appeared out of nowhere in 2007 ? flyers started appearing at gigs in the Midlands and on indie message boards, advertising a night of bands and steam trains. It sounded ridiculous and wonderful. We had to go. It turns out to be the brain child of Stuart Mackay, a shy Scottish man restoring trains in the middle of Derbyshire. He didn't expect it to work. "Don't ask me why," he said. "I think there's a lot of roots of indie pop in the Sixties, with Sixties dresses and music ? and with old fashioned steam trains, that might be the tie-in." The main site for the festival is located at Swanwick Junction, which features such attractions as a demonstration signal box, a narrow gauge railway and a half-built diesel depot. Indie kids wandered around in glee, or sat in 1950s buffet cars, drinking beer and discussing the line-up: this year, Teenage Fanclub, Camera Obscura, The Frank and Walters, BMX Bandits. Bands played in a restored church, in a train shed, or on the lawn while steam trains glided on by. Most magically of all, some of them got to play on the trains themselves ? while the train was moving. This involved as many people stuffing themselves into a goods carriage as possible. The train chugged off through the Derbyshire countryside, stopping at a reservoir and then near a cemetery to allow enough time for a few songs. Everyone sang along. It was like a parallel universe commute from the planet Sunshine. Indiepop, a DIY scene that has its roots in 1980s indie (think girls with fringes, handclaps and jangly songs about love, and you're about there), attracts people from all over the world - just not many of them. There were DJs from Spain and Hong Kong, bands from Sweden, New York and even Argentina; but still only 1,000 people in total turned up. And how many of them like steam trains? Midlands folkpop-poet MJ Hibbett summed up the connection best. "Indiepop and steam engines are both loved by enthusiasts, who do it for the fun of it rather than any monetary gain. "Also, there's always real ale involved." This DIY spirit was particularly strong in the Workshop Wigwam where, over the course of the weekend, there were activities including how to write a song, a bunting-making party, how to put together a fanzine, and How Not To Run a Record Label. The host of the latter, Sean Price of Fortuna Pop! label, claimed: "By my conservative estimates, I've lost a six-figure sum over 13 years." Eithne Farry, author of Yeah I Made It Myself and former member of 80s indie legends Tallulah Gosh, runs a session called "Hey Ho Let's Sew". "Don't fear the sewing machine, it's your friend," she told me. "Before you know it, you could be making your own ball gown with a huge train." This kind of DIY attitude is at the heart of the festival's ideology: if you make something earnestly, you too can be an indiepop star. You've probably already been thinking it, but Art Brut, art-punks incongruously playing on the Sunday night, mentioned the dreaded "t" word. "I'm really liking the festival, but I've just one complaint ? it's a bit twee." It is. Singer Eddie Argos claimed he's going to form his own festival, where all the bands are punk, and it's going to take place in a tank museum, "in November." I daydreamed a retro-futurist synth-pop festival, which would take place on a monorail. But how would the monorail staff feel? As for the volunteers at the Midland Railway Centre, they seemed pleased with the crowd that Indietracks draws. "I'll say this for them: they're all very well behaved, unlike those metallers." Or Daleks. ? For information about next year's Indietracks Festival, Midland Railway Centre, Ripley, Derbyshire, go to the website indietracks.co.uk


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