This year’s Edinburgh Deaf Festival (EDF) will feature over 100 events including improve and street performance across this first weekend.
The programme includes a performance from deaf Brazillian performers as part of the Sign Slam group. The group will use street performances on the Royal Mile to encourage interaction between hearing and deaf people.
A comedy improv show is part of the agenda which will include poetry, activism and storytelling. The approach was successful when used in Brazil to raise awareness of their sign language called Libras.
Throughout Sign Slam, audience members are encouraged to interact with the performers and to dictate which direction the performance goes. British Sign Language, International Sign, body expression and visual humour are the tools which the group use throughout the performance.
Leonardo Castilho and Anna Luiza Maciel are members of the group carrying out the live street performances. They will also be hosting their own show also called Sign Slam.
EDF will take place over ten days starting from today (AUG 7) and will feature over 100 shows and events. Deaf Action, the world’s oldest deaf charity at over 190 years old, are the organisers of the festival.
Other events throughout the weekend include “A Night in Sign” a BSL cabaret event and “Lights & Lanterns,” an opportunity to make your own lanterns where light becomes language.
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