Two FallenWall Arts, the organisation behind MAPS Festival, actors in their production of Romeo is Dead

An all-day contemporary arts festival has won funding from the council during the Guild year.

Preston’s MAPS festival will launch in September and showcase artists and experimental work within the city.

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Festival organisers want to take over alternative performance spaces, such as shops, offices and parks to capture the public’s attention.

Jack Coverdale from FallenWall Arts, a Preston-based arts firm formed in 2010, is behind the scheme and says the event will aim to challenge.

He said: “We are keen to see a variety of work from artists working in different contexts and with different artistic practice with an emphasis being placed on risk taking and experimentation.

“The festival will take place throughout the city in a variety of non-performance spaces be they shops, offices or outdoor spaces such as parks. We would like to see artists responding in some way to these spaces and the city as a whole, prompting artists, local people and the wider cultural community to see the city in a different way.”

Coverdale says the city has a number of artists working ‘under the radar’ and should be doing more to promote them.

“Maps seeks to address that issue and hopefully introduce the people of Preston to new types of work, contesting the idea that theatre is limited simply to plays and showing the countless other, equally engaging, entertaining and challenging work which constitutes art and performance,” he says.

The festival will run for a whole day on Saturday 8th September and is part-funded by Preston council.

Coverdale, who lives in Deepdale and is studying for an MA in performance at the University of Central Lancashire, wants to recruit any army of volunteers to help with the events.

He said: “We are currently looking for people to get involved in a variety of roles ranging from website designers to filmmakers interested in documenting the event.”

Anyone wanting to get involved should log on to the MAPS Preston website and you can follow the MAPS Festival on Twitter.