A music and outdoor arts company based in Norwich, UK, delivering work and projects across music, carnival and street theatre.

 

A platform for musician and carnival artist, Marcus Patteson, bringing the spirit of carnival to a range of music-driven performances, from stage to parade and static street shows.  

 

Engaging the inverted world of carnival and carnivalesque to reflect and comment upon life and the human condition.

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Music: A guitarist and singer since his teens, Marcus' musical life was transformed by discovering community music, as part of Big Sky Choir. Specialising in Samba drumming, he has taught Samba workshops for the best part of 30 years, with extensive periods studying in Brazil, including a residency with Rio bloco, Monobloco, in 2007/08.  A burgeoning love of Brazilian music led to the formation of the Rabo de Foguete carnival band in 2008. After 10 years, that project morphed into Bird Service, his new band, which released its first album in 2021.

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Carnival:  Marcus has been teaching and leading community Samba bands since 1997, starting Norwich Samba with Paul Weston in 2000, and running that until 2009.  Projects and groups since then have included Bloco Foguete (an extension of the Rabo carnival band), Bloco do Sol Nascente, (a project to bring together 100+ members of regional Samba bands, working with JP Courtney, Hej Jones and members of Monobloco) and Samba Bamba (NORCA's youth Samba band). He has developed and been artistic or musical director for a number of carnival shows, including Celestial Festival Carnival (2003), Back to the Streets (2009), Spooky City (2014-16), Norwich Circus 250 (2018), and the World We Live In (2019). In 2012, he was the Norwich music artist for Carnival Crossroads (the UK Centre for Carnival Arts' Cultural Olympiad project). In 2023, he also oversaw the delivery of the Norwich Lord Mayor's Procession for Norwich City Council.  Most recently he has taken on developing a Samba band in Lowestoft for the Marina Theatre, Sunrise Samba.

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Street Theatre:  Marcus's street theatre work brings the carnivalesque to our public spaces through high energy, music-driven performances, working with a range of artistic partners.

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