Wednesday 30 January 2013

More Modern Circus - take a circus tour 1 and 2 February

After seeing that marvellous performance about knitting peace you will no doubt be looking for some more circus. The theatre Le Merlan is offering a circus tour in central Marseille with three different forms of circus performance in three unexpected places.

The tour costs 25€ (for the three performances and soup or tea) and the itinerary goes like this:
  • 5:30 - 6:00pm Saint Charles campus, a welcoming vin chaud
  • 6:00 - 7:00pm The company l'Immediat will entertain and challenge you with "Jubilation"
  • 7:00 - 8:00pm Guided walk (30 mins), with a stop off for soup or tea, to the next destination
  • 8:00 - 8:30pm Opus Corpus by trapeze artist Chloé Moglia at the Protestant Temple in rue Grignan
  • 8:30 - 9:30pm Guided walk (5mins) with a pause to enjoy food provided by La Boite a Sardine
  • 9:30 - 10:30pm De l'autre côté by Cirquons Flex at Société Marseillais de Crédit, Estrangin



If you dont want to do the whole tour you can go to see the performances separately (prices between 5 and 20€).

Thursday 24 January 2013

The start of a season of modern circus - Knitting for Peace 24 January

On 24 January the festival 'Cirque en corps" begins with a performance by the internationally renowned Swedish company Cirkus Cirkör. Is it possible to change the world by knitting? Can a world knitting movement make a difference and bring peace?  Performers use their bodies in apparently impossible ways to bring us a unique circus act that is not to be missed.


It costs 16€ and there are performances at CREAC 22 Boulevard de Méditerrannée, Thursday, Friday and Saturday starting at 8:30pm. If you're travelling from central Marseille, for the cost of a metro ticket there's a bus 10 minutes after the end of of the performance to the metro Bougainville or the Centre Bourse.

The festival continues for a month so watch this space.

Thursday 17 January 2013

A Weekend of music with Malik Ziad 18 - 20 January

La Meson has given carte blanche to Malik Ziad this weekend. He will perform Friday, Saturday and Sunday with different groups of musicians and different instruments. Malik Ziad was born in Algeria and likes to share his passion for traditional music using traditional instruments. He manages to mix music from North Africa, Brittany and Provence to produce his own particular style.

To get you moving, the first part of each evening is hosted by Big Buddha, a fine artist/DJ with an ear for creating great music mixes.


For a weekend of world music, this is the place to be. Each concert starts at 8pm and costs 10€

Saturday 12 January 2013

GO! - Capital of Culture Opening Weekend 12/13 January

The moment you've been waiting for! If you can't make it to Aix for the Air Force Flying display, go into Marseille and take a look at work in progress on the new buildings. On 12 January you can go into the old Station Sanitaire and see what is planned for the new Regards de Provence gallery as well as admiring the work of Georges Rousse, Dominik Barbier and Anne Van Steen. There are also exhibitions in J1 in the docks area. You can download a programme from the site. On 13 January you can visit the MUCEM building, due to open in June.

J1 La joliette
If you're after sound and light go to the upper car park of the Grand Littoral at 5:30pm on 12th to see the start of the light parade the march of the machines, mechanical diggers and agricultural machinery as you have never seen them.


Friday 11 January 2013

Get Set - Capital of Culture opening weekend 12/13 January

On Sunday 13 January there are treasure hunts all over the place, 112 routes in 20 Communes. Find our how much you know and learn lots more about the Marseille Povence area by taking part on one (or more) of the hunts. They are free. They take place between 10am and 3pm and there are prizes too! You can register for them on the MP2013 site.


If you use the interactive map you will find some hunts in English and some accessible for people with reduced mobility and some for people with children in pushchairs.

Thursday 10 January 2013

On your marks - Capital of Culture opening weekend 12/13 January

It's time to plan where you want to be for the grand opening of the Capital of Culture year. There are major events in Marseille, Aix and Arles and smaller ones in Aubagne and Gardanne. The Grande Clameur (the Big Noise) is at 7pm on Saturday in Marseille. There will be people performing music, dance and generally making a noise all over the city.  There's a Google Map of all the events.

Try a concert of bicycle bells by the bandstand at the top of the Canebière, organised by Vélos en Ville (No. 22 on map), or a concert in sign language on the Vieux Port, organised by the Collectif Langues des Signes et Culture Sourde Marseille Provence 2013 (No. 26 on map) .



The Clameur lasts five minutes. After that there are events until the early hours, in the streets and at various venues. Get out there and celebrate.

Tuesday 1 January 2013

New Year Concert 6 January 2013

Looking for some entertainment before the big Capital of Culture opening weekend? This concert will offer a varied mixture of popular and classical music to start the new year. It's at the Basilica Sacré Coeur on the Prado (No 81, near metro Perier). It starts at 4pm and it costs 10€ (free for under 13s).

The performance includes extracts from Haydn's Creation, Tchaikovski's Nutcracker suite, Bach's Magnificat, The Merry Widow and West Side Story. The singers are Murielle Tomao and Jean Christophe Born, with Christophe Guida playing the organ.