NOW Live Events

Welcome to NOW Live Events

NOW Festival 2013 Mindful Poetry and Wild Swimming

Wild Swimming & Poetry Workshop, NOW at Wilderness Festival, August 2013. Photo: Tania Dolvers

At NOW Live Events, we believe that life happens here. Right now. Our events champion unique ways of being in the moment and enjoying what it brings, including live events and festivals at London venues, UK Festivals, arts centres, pop ups, flash mobs and much more.

We offer an innovative blend of arts and wellbeing activities for all ages, from debates, talks and workshops to participatory installations and shared spaces. We provide opportunities to play and party, and also to reflect and be still.

NOW runs a monthly programme of self-development events in partnership with nationwide Psychologies Magazine (see more below) as well longer arts and wellbeing festivals at various venues and UK Festivals. Within all the events we do, our main message is to savour the moment, or ‘carpe diem’,  one of the most famous visions of the roles of the arts ever and the core message of the modern phenomenon of ‘mindfulness’ (being totally aware of and in touch with the present moment).

We believe that learning how to be more present in our lives, specifically through tuning into the senses, is a powerful way of changing the face of the UK today. NOW is the only live literature and cross arts festival in the world to promote ‘carpe diem’,  one of the most famous visions of the roles of the arts ever – alongside the modern concept of mindfulness (being totally aware of and in touch with the present moment). 5 million people in the UK today are severely affected by stress which has risen at work by 86% in 20 years, and is continuing to do so in over 80% of workplaces (The Royal College of Psychiatrists). Being more aware of our senses and cultivating mindfulness is scientifically proven to be a highly effective method to alleviate stress and anxiety in the long term as well as promoting stronger focus in our frantic modern lifestyles.

By engaging with you, our audience, we want to create real change together, exploring ways to be more mindful in our every day lives, in this moment and every moment.

To hear what people have been saying about NOW Live Events, please visit our testimonial and press pages.

 

NOW Live Events in partnership with Psychologies Magazine

NOW Live Events

Cherry Healey in conversation with Suzy Greaves, NOW Live Events, March 2014. Photo: Tania Dolvers

Since Autumn 2013, we have been working in partnership with the brilliant Psychologies Magazine offering a series of monthly events with inspiring experts and specialists in wellbeing, self-development and from further afield. The events series offers highly practical and tools-based events, championing a fun and engaging way to enhance the quality of our lives. Our events programme will feature some of our brilliant experts from our NOW Live Events summer programme, relocating from the festival field to offer London audiences their unique workshops.

To read more about the NOW Live Events programme, click here. 

 

NOW Live Events Summer Programmes and Festivals – A New Arts Experience

Ruby Wax Talk & Mindfulness Workshop, NOW at Wilderness Festival, August 2013. Photo: Tania Dolvers

NOW creates synergy between the worlds of the arts and wellbeing to create a new arts experience. This summer, NOW will launch our first community programme with a week-long festival of over 35 events at Deptford Lounge London from 23 – 28 June and over 35 events at Wilderness Festival, Oxfordshire from 7 – 10 August. Drawing on the concept of being in the NOWthe NOW Live Events programme fuses mindfulness and the idea of savouring the moment or ‘carpe diem’ – one of the most famous visions of the roles of the arts ever.

At each festival, there will be a range of arts and wellbeing activities on offer with over 70 of the UK’s most thought-provoking artists, writers, poets, musicians, actors and thinkers from Oliver Burkeman and Craftivist Collective to new and emerging artists. From literature, theatre, visual arts and dance to feasting, gardening and mindfulness meditation, NOW Live Events allows the audience to Disconnect, Stop & Reconnect. For more information on last year’s summer programme at Secret Garden Party and Wilderness Festival (lead by our NOW ambassador Ruby Wax) click here.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Arts Council England for their generous support with NOW Live Events and for making it all possible.

 

Further Info

Now Productions UK. was founded by Jana Stefanovska in 2013. Based in South East London, we aim to create events and festivals which surprise and inspire. James Runcie, Head of Literature at Southbank Centre, says: “Now Productions UK. are fantastically creative, combining big ideas with great attention to detail, seeking out the undiscovered and the unpredictable, putting on events and festivals that shift perception and change lives for the better.”

Mindfulness: To find out more please visit www.oxfordmindfulness.org.

NOW Live Events Photography by Tania Dolvers.

NOW Live Events is owned and operated by Now Productions U.K. C.I.C .

 

The NOW Festival 2013 Team

 

NOW Live Events 2013 team: Mike Evans, Helena Zedig, Arwen Giel, Jana Stefanovska, Matt Nightingale, Elaine Craig, Rachel Porter. Photo: Tania Dolvers