The Week in Light & Sound
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Creative Growth Finance II is the biggest single fund to be delivered by Creative UK and follows the first Creative Growth Finance fund, which launched in 2019 and has invested more than £17m into 30 creative businesses. Eligible companies in sectors including performing arts, music, architecture, design, film and TV, radio and audio, publishing, visual arts and video games, will be able to apply for loans of £100,000 to £1m to grow their businesses.
Caroline Norbury, chief executive of Creative UK, said: “Over the past decade, the UK’s creative industries have grown more than 1.5 times the rate of the wider economy, currently generating £108 billion in economic value and employing 2.3 million people. However, this country’s talented creative businesses are experiencing a significant gap between their immense growth potential and access to the vital capital they need to succeed. “In launching the Creative Industries Sector Vision, the prime minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged the ’enormous potential of our creative entrepreneurs and businesses’ and said that ’growing the economy means growing the creative industries’."
Hogmanay Headliner - Britpop trailblazers Pulp have been announced as the headline act for Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations. Led by frontman Jarvis Cocker, the Sheffield band will bring in the bells against a backdrop of Edinburgh Castle. It follows a successful reunion and a summer tour which included a well-received set at TRNSMT in Glasgow. Cocker said: "When your grandkids ask 'Do you remember the first time Pulp played Edinburgh's Hogmanay?' What will your answer be?" He added: "Come along and start 2024 in the very best way possible. Oh yes."
Super Bowl - Usher will be the headline performer at the 2024 Super Bowl half-time show, it has been confirmed. "It's an honour of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list," said Usher. "I can't wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they've seen from me before." The singer was one of the biggest stars of the late 1990s and 2000s, with multi-platinum hits including You Make Me Wanna, Pop Ya Collar, Yeah!, Burn and Confessions Pt II.
Fangirls - Australian musical Fangirls will receive its UK premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre as part of its new season of work. The season will also include a stage adaptation of Minority Report and the world premiere of The Promise, from Deafinitely Theatre. Fangirls is written and composed by Yve Blake and directed by Paige Rattray. It will close the season in a six-week run from July 13 to August 24, in a co-production with Sonia Friedman Productions.
(Jim Evans)
26 September 2023
