Jon here! The smallest, youngest, and most handsome member of the Wëreldbänd. This Fringe we’re bringing our new show “Släpstick" to the Assembly George Square Theatre, our first major foray into international waters. 

The five of us are conservatory trained musicians on one specific instrument each, but we’re all far too musically industrious  (a.k.a scatterbrained) to keep it to one instrument per performer. So as a result of our musical A.D.D and a penchant for flea-market bargain hunting, we’ve amassed a prolific collection of musical toys and oddities, ranging from your everyday tubas and violins, all the way to indonesian gamelans, rare 80’s wind synths, and everything in between. We’ve got about 600 in total, but luckily (for our roadie’s backs) we’re only bringing a small selection. Namely:

2 Contra basses
1 Viola
1 Bratsch (Romanian Viola with 3 strings and flattened bridge)
4 Violins (of which only 1 is launched into the air)
1 Baritone tuba
2 Clarinets
1 Bass clarinet
1 Alto saxophone
2 Tenor saxophones
1 Baritone Saxophone
1 Mandolin
2 Mandotars ( or Guitardolins? a self invented siamese twin, involving a guitar, a mandolin, a band saw, and lots of glue)
1 Bluegrass banjo
1 Soprano recorder
1 Flute
3 Trombones
1 Trumpet
1 Harmonica
1 Occarina
5 Concertinas
1 Accordeon
1 Glockenspiel
1 Bell set
1 Hi-hat
1 Philicorda
1 Pianola
1 Dinner Bell
1 Slapstick (obviously!)

So all in all, cramming all of this into cases and loading it into the truck is quite a monumental task! Check out the time lapse of our packing day, and see you in Edinburgh!

And that’s just our instrumentarium! We’re also schlepping along a few life size swan puppets, aquariums, fur coats, giant hammers and boxing gloves, etc. Oh! and of course THE WALL: our 6 meter wide, 3.5 meter tall "Buster Keaton” tumbling decor! 

(Header photo credit: Jaap Reedijk)

The Wëreldbänd join Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 2-27 August 2017 at 18:00 @ George Square Theatre. See more of the Wëreldbänd here!