Snapshots of a career

Thursday afternoon saw the arrival of accomplished photographer Eamonn McCabe to Cultural eXchanges week - and this was one of the highlights of the festival.

This hour of anecdotes and illustrated by examples of some of McCabe's greatest photographs was lapped up by all, and not just aspiring photographers.

McCabe's career has included sports and music photography, portraits and a spell as picture editor of The Guardian. His recollections ranged from three Olympics and the 1981 Royal Wedding to the more sombre subject of the Heysel Stadium Disaster in Brussels.

While I've never considered photography as a career option, McCabe's enthusiasm and passion for the subject made me believe that it really is the best occupation imaginable. It's not the standard 9 to 5 job - and he's spent time with James Brown, Bono, Morgan Freeman, John Hurt and Robert Harris.

A single hour just wasn't enough to fit in all that McCabe wanted to share, and I don't think any of us would have objected to a second hour. Here's hoping that he may return soon for yet another captivating talk.

Jack Arkell

Greening festivals

With the festival sector becoming one of the most talked about topics in recent years, it was fitting that De Montfort University's Cultural eXchanges Festival was host to a talk on the sustainability of such events.

With the economy at fault for many smaller festivals lacking the resources to keep running, a large amount are forced to close down. Paradoxically, the larger festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading/Leeds are booming, with a price rise of roughly 15% each year, yet selling out all the same.

The focus of this talk was Green and environmental issues with regards to outdoor festivals, and whether or not such problems could be putting these events at risk.

Included on the panel of speakers was Ben Challis, a founding member of the Greener Festival Awards. His scheme to recognise the efforts of festivals around Europe towards the goal of increasing efficiency has proved very successful so far, with much improvement by the majority of festivals that have joined in with the campaign. Still, Challis conceded that the uphill battle has only just begun.

He also claimed that the most recent objective has been to work with festival attendees as much as organisers through schemes such as Love Your Tent. A common misconception is that tents left on festival sites at the end of a weekend are recycled or given to charities. The truth is that it is often impossible to do either, especially when the tents in question are damaged.

Chris Johnson of Shambala Festival chose to focus on power and CO2. He claimed that the cost of power is one of the main reasons that smaller festivals are struggling.

A question and answers session brought up more issues of efficiency. One audience member asked whether we can really be efficient at festivals, as they are a time of celebration and having a good time rather than cutting back. Challis answered that whereas there is a minority of festival goers who are almost anti-environmental in their actions, most people at festivals are either conscious of such matters or open to persuasion.

In a debate way too expansive for so short a space of time, the panel could be forgiven for only scratching the surface of the topic, yet their knowledge was more than enough to make for an intriguing hour.


Jack Arkell

A look to the future

I was given a look into the future today as I attended a reading postgraduate creative writers at De Montfort. Three of the six readers were previously members of the undergraduate Demon Crew, who decided to pursue their writing further at M.A. and Ph.D. level.

The six speakers shared work which was varied stylistically, yet all pieces were of a high standard. I particularly enjoyed the poetry of Richard Byrt, who combined humour with linguistic vibrancy, and fiction from both Bhagwant Kaur and Claire Baldwin, with the latter creating a narrative voice which was strikingly fresh and unique.

As well as inspiring the undergraduates in attendance, there was plenty of entertainment for the rest of the audience.

I hope to be in the position of those writers in just a couple of years' time, and also hope that their work will be visible on a much wider scale in the very near future.


Jack Arkell