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14 / Flight Time / JULY 2018
A unique opportunity for Jersey songwriters
to help preserve and promote Jersey’s native
language – Jèrriais – has been launched. The
Jersey Song Project, a collaboration between
the Jersey Festival of Words and Jèrriais
expert and musician Kit Ashton, aims to use
the power of song to keep the threatened
Norman-French dialect alive.
Jersey musicians and Jèrriais speakers will
be encouraged to get together to create
new songs that will be performed at the
opening event of the Jersey Festival of Words
on 26th September. The compositions can be
on any theme and in any genre or language
but must include at least one word of Jèrriais.
Kit Ashton’s Jèrriais band Badlabecques
have already done much to revitalise the
Island’s language through their concerts and
recordings. He said: “Jèrriais is now a critically
endangered language and,
unless the people of Jersey
revitalise it, it could disappear
from our culture altogether,
taking with it hundreds of
years of literature in the form
of songs, stories, poems,
reports, recipes, local wisdom
and more. Music is one of
the most powerful ways to
keep a language alive, so we
are hoping for some really
interesting new music to
come out of this process.”
Musicians and Jèrriais
speakers interested in joining
the Jersey Song Project are invited to contact
him at .
As well as the Jersey Song Project, this
year’s festival will include the launch of a
translation into Jèrriais of Michael Rosen
and Helen Oxenbury’s children’s classic
We’re All Going on a Bear Hunt. With its
publication by Walker Books coinciding with
the European Day of Languages, the book
will be presented to every child starting at
primary school in September, with the aim of
sparking interest among the young while also
giving parents an incentive to learn some of
the language.
The festival will also feature celebrity
writers in all genres, including Peter
James and Joanna Trollop, and a packed
programme of events. It takes place from
26th-30th September.
J E R S E Y
Sing and save the
island’s language
“Music is one
of the most
powerful
ways to keep
a language
alive, so
we are
hoping for
some really
interesting
new music to
come out of
this process”
The Vaults, London’s home
for immersive theatre and
alternative arts, has created a
brand new experience Sounds
and Sorcery celebrating
Disney Fantasia. Inspired by
the classic 1940 Disney film, a
series of unique installations will
bring some of the world’s most
iconic classical music to life in
a multi-sensory experience,
running from 3rd July to 30th
September. Audience members
will be invited to step inside
The Vaults maze of tunnels
in Waterloo, where, wearing
individual headphones, a
96-piece orchestra will guide
them on an interactive journey.
Each space will reveal a
fantastical environment using
a combination of cutting-edge
binaural sound, 3D projections,
elaborate set designs and
dazzling lighting effects to
reimagine the many worlds of
Disney Fantasia.
L O N D O N
FANTASIA
ADVENTURE