SAFARI FESTIVAL FORTNIGHT!
Get used to that intro to articles at Broken Frontier over the next couple of weeks because it’s going to be a regular fixture on the site in that time…
Breakdown Press’s Safari Festival returns on August 12th at Protein in London’s Shoreditch and, for the third year in a row, we’ll be celebrating the occasion here at BF with relevant themed reviews and features on guests and exhibitors. Why do we give over so much time every year for Safari? Simply put, it’s one of those events on the comics calendar that most reflects the type of work that Broken Frontier exists to give space to – comics that are innovative, daring and boundary-pushing. Comics that make no concession to easy definition, take no prisoners and are unafraid to confront preconceptions of what the form should be.
This year sees representation from a number of micropublishers, creators and collectives to have featured heavily here at BF over the years including Retrofit Comics, 2dcloud, Decadence Comics, kuš!, One Beat Zines, Simon Moreton, Babak Ganjei and, of course, Breakdown themselves. And with headlining guests of the quality of Anya Davidson, Charles Forsman and Lane Milburn you know this is going to be an unmissable event.
If that’s not enough for you there’s also a number of associated satellite events including Charles Forsman in conversation at Gosh! Comics, the pre-party festivities launching new Breakdown books from Liam Cobb, Antoine Cossé, Shaky Kane and Richard Short at Gosh! Comics, and a launch/exhibition for John’s Worth #3 and Berserker #1 at Lo and Behold on August 10th.
From the big comics dos like Thought Bubble, ELCAF and LICAF, to the smaller focused events like SLCZF, CECAF and BCZF, we’re spoilt for choice for festivals and fairs in the UK at the moment. Each of them has a specific flavour and target audience, ensuring as a result that they also all have their own individual character. In Safari we have a festival that embodies work that rejects the safe and the comfortable in order to embrace the experimental and the challenging, and that’s worth celebrating.
Two weeks of solid coverage of that material begins today at BF. As I said, welcome to Safari Festival Fortnight…
– Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier Editor-in-Chief, July 31st, 2017
Find out more about Safari Festival online here and follow the festival on Twitter here.
For regular updates on all things small press and Broken Frontier follow Andy Oliver on Twitter here.