Blur star and the bees create buzz at ‘Pestival’

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Bug fan: the festival features songs by Blur’s Graham Coxon

Bees in the bonnet: the “beecab” has an inbuilt hive

A bug’s life: the Southbank Centre’s Pestival will feature sounds from inside a scaled-up termite mound

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A giant termite mound and a black cab with a beehive are to be part of London's first insect festival at the Southbank Centre.

Dubbed Pestival, the event aims to raise awareness of insects threatened by extinction.

It will feature a concert of “insect songs” sung by Graham Coxon of Blur — whose hits included Beetlebum — and a symphony with a bee chorus.

“Insects are critical to human life on earth,” said Bridget Nicholls, the founder of the festival. “And yet they are misunderstood, reviled or ignored.

“Pestival will challenge stereotypes about insects and give them their rightful place, for good and bad, in our collective cultural consciousness.”

Visitors will be able to walk through the giant termite mound, a scaled-up version of the central chimney of one from Namibia. The six-by-six-metre installation also has surround-sound recording from inside a real mound. “It's amazing, and really like being inside a giant termite mound, it's quite disconcerting,” said Miss Nicholls.

Sound recordist Chris Watson has composed a symphony for the festival, combining choral singers and recordings from bees in the Royal Festival Hall's beehives.

The inspiration for Pestival came from an insect film festival in the Pyrenees.

Other attractions at Pestival, whose backers include the Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England, include the “beecab” — a taxi fitted with a beehive inside a glass chamber.

There will also be insect mask-making and a martial arts session called Praying Mantis Kung Fu.
Pestival runs from 3-6 September.

 

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