6 June 2008: The world's largest whoopee cushion, carrot whistles, watermelon drums and a technological makeover for pop star wannabes are a few of the highlights of the FREE Street Vibe Festival of Sound, 11:30am - 6:00pm, 14 June at The Scoop, More London - outside City Hall on the South Bank.

World Record Attempt: 14:20 hrs

Street Vibe (www.streetvibe.org) is a major free one-off event for all ages that explores the weird and wonderful role of science and engineering in making music and sound. Extraordinary live performances in The Scoop and creative workshops in surrounding marquees invite us to tune our bodies; turn our silhouettes into sounds; slice, dice and DJ sounds in the Strangeloop lab; and take part in a live orchestral performance using our bodies as instruments. A big screen will broadcast visual projections of the sounds and live events including:

• World Record Attempt - Street Vibe's attempt to break the world record for the largest whoopee cushion ever made. A whopping three metres in size, it will beat the current record by over a metre. Brave volunteers will be invited to sit on the enormous 'musical' cushion to demonstrate just how wind instruments really work.
  
  
• Trevor and Steve: Beautiful Music Horrible Sounds - how performers get the X factor. Girl-boy duo Phluffy Nice and the not so harmonious Grim Reaper get a much-needed makeover to explore whether technology really does have the potential to make or break their bid for fame and fortune.
  
  
• Get musical with the grow-your-own orchestra - Whether it's a marrow-harp or coconut maracas, it's yours to make and play in the Sound Factory, a workshop where just about anything can become a musical instrument.
  
  
• Squid Soup - Freq2 - What you see is what you hear when Freq takes the outline of our silhouette and turns it into a sound. Freq2 takes these sounds and throws them in the mix - looping and layering to create a one off musical performance.
  
  
• Heart Beats, Rhythms and Street Vibes - Composer and musician, Eugene Skeef and Physicist Steve Mesure will conduct a live orchestral performance with our bodies as the instruments. It will explore the different tones that can be made by our own bodies alongside the instruments that the audiences will have made for the day.

Jane Reck from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council said: "Street Vibe aims to highlight the importance of engineering and the many different ways in which it can be used our everyday lives. It offers visitors the chance to participate in a fantastic range of innovative events and performances and is a great way for people to realise how fun and creative engineering can be."

Street Vibe is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and managed by Kallaway. For more information including a full programme of events, please visit www.streetvibe.org


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For further press information please contact

Katie Jackson:
020 7221 7883 / 07846 339594
katie.jackson@kallaway.co.uk

Notes to Editors
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK's main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. The EPSRC invests around £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC also actively promotes public awareness of science and engineering. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK. Website address for more information on EPSRC: www.epsrc.ac.uk