Monday 28 May 2012

Marfest 2012 is coming....

It's that time of year again! Martial Arts Festival time...

The 12th Great Northern International Festival of Martial Arts (affectionately know as Marfest) is due to be staged on Sunday 24th June 2012 at the University of Sunderland, 'City Space' site from 10.00am - 4pm.

This is a great day out for martial artists and non-martial artists alike. The festival takes the form of demonstrations to a seated audience on the main mat with a rotating programme of 'taster sessions' for the public to try on four smaller matted areas. This format proved very popular last year with dozens of people trying out various martial arts for the first time with instruction from some of the regions top instructors.

The festival always kicks off with a spectacular lion dance parade




This year's demonstrations include:


Kung Fu - Paul Tennet
Jujitsu - Chris Poole
Directional Fighting Method - Phil Doherty
Judo - John Pickering
Tae Kwon Do - Mike Campos
Aiki Arts - Geoff Aisbitt
Ninjutsu - Bill Patterson
Kempo Jitsu - Paul Thompson
Cane Do - Mick Farrow
Tai Chi - Joe Harte

Here's a medley of last years festival:




The aim of Marfest is to raise money for cancer research. All proceeds from the day will go to the North Eastern branch of Cancer Research UK. Newcastle University is a world leader in cancer research with projects in both adult and childhood cancers. In addition, marfest has set up a fundraising page on the Cancer Research UK website where people can donate directly to the 'sarcoma project' that is currently being funded by the charity at Newcastle University.

This will be my 4th year of attending the festival. I'm not good enough to do a demonstration for them, though I enjoyed participating in the taster sessions (I did some judo, aikido and DFM last year), so I have offered to help the organiser, Peter Seth, by helping to promoting the festival. To that aim I have set up a blog dedicated to Marfest as well as the fundraising page. Please go and visit the blog where you will find out more about the festival and its participants (more content will be added on the run up to the festival) and if you want, go visit the fundraising page too, after all cancer touches on all our lives in one way or another and the work done at Newcastle University will benefit cancer sufferers the world over....

Thanks for listening...

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2 comments:

Felicia said...

Sounds like a blast, Sue. I'm sure you will enjoy it and raise lots for cancer research.

How funny is it that in my neck of the woods, we have a Mike Campos who, for years, headed a martial arts festival called Super Summer Seminars in central New York. He is not a TKD practitioner (his organization and style is called Zen Do Kai), so I'm sure it isn't the same person - but the irony made me chuckle.

Sue C said...

Hi Felicia, It's usually a good day out and a good way to make contacts with other martial artists and styles. I think these festivals are great for opening up your eyes to other styles of martial arts and other possibilities. Perhaps Mike Campos(US) is a long lost relative of Mike Campos(UK)LOL!

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