What’s interesting about Luminate is how timely the festival feels

By ANDREW EATON-LEWIS
Published on 22/09/2012 19:23

IT’S often said that Western culture is obsessed with youth – look at Madonna or Mick Jagger, still behaving like bratty teenagers, or the media’s obsession with dieting and cosmetic surgery.

And yet, all around there are signs that this is changing. The film Hope Springs, a romantic comedy released last week starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, is further evidence that Hollywood, after years of creating comic book movies for teenagers, is now going out of its way to appeal to an older audience (and it would be daft not to, given how much money has been made by films like The King’s Speech). In the fashion world there is a growing trend for using older models – the latest example being the autumn collection by French design house Lanvin.

In Scotland, the cover star of the new issue of The List – 68 per cent of whose “young and socially active” readers are under 40 – is a grey-haired musician and writer, 50 this year, who shows no desire to act any younger than his age. Why? Because the magazine thinks David Byrne is still of interest to its readers, regardless of how old he is. In October there is a new nationwide event called Luminate, a “creative ageing festival” whose shows include The F Word, in which River City star Libby McArthur celebrates being a fiftysomething, My Shrinking Life, Alison Peebles’ very personal account of living with MS, and Survival Tactics, by the fantastic veteran live artist Liz Aggiss, who describes herself as “a pigeon-toed, bow-legged oddball in big pants”.

The danger with a “creative ageing festival” is that it only exists to tick policy boxes. And yes, Creative Scotland’s website describes Luminate as “part of our drive to increase the number of older people enjoying high quality arts activities” without explaining what, exactly, is stopping older people from doing that now, or why a festival is the best solution. Frothy films like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel raise a similar concern, that in targeting a particular audience you end up patronising them.

What’s interesting about Luminate, though, is how timely it feels. Another show in its programme, Thread, is a poignant, award-winning play by Edinburgh-based company Nutshell about a love triangle between three pensioners. Its theme makes it perfect Luminate material, and yet it was just one of a long list of shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe which – by coincidence rather than programming – unflinchingly explored old age, illness, and loss of memory. It may be that Luminate’s real achievement is not to make great art, theatre and music more accessible to older people (although kudos to the festival if it does) but to reflect the zeitgeist. «