The new artistic directors of the Fierce! festival tell Terry Grimley that they will continue a proud tradition.

Just when you might have thought the Fierce! festival had left the stage, it has bounced back with a double shot of creative energy with the appointment of joint artistic directors Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison.

Built up over a decade into one of Britain’s most innovative and edgy contemporary arts festivals, Fierce! has always been synonymous with the swashbuckling entrepreneurial style of its founding director, Mark Ball.

First launched under its original title Queerfest in 1998, its early years were marked by controversy over attractions like self-harming performance artist Franko B.

But the rise of Fierce! – with Janet Street-Porter comparing it flatteringly to the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival, beloved of the London literati but dull in Street-Porter’s eyes – led to Mark Ball winning the title of West Midlands Young Director of the Year from the Institute of Directors in 2002.

The danger seemed to be that Fierce! was becoming almost too respectable, and after it teamed up with the Royal Shakespeare Company to help launch its Complete Works festival with an overhead dawn procession of hot air balloons, Ball was head-hunted to become the RSC’s head of events.

His departure left a question mark over the future of Fierce!, but after taking a break this year to regroup, it re-emerged this month with the announcement that McDermott and Morrison, two young curators who have been making a name for themselves on the London experimental scene, have been appointed as joint artistic directors.

McDermott, 27, and Morrison, 28, have developed their professional partnership at Battersea Arts Centre (BAC), a venue which has pioneered the idea of “creative producing” under the artistic directorship of David Jubb since 2004.

Projects they worked on included 2007’s acclaimed Punchdrunk-BAC co-production of The Masque of the Red Death, in which the audience were required to don masks and then let loose to wander through free-form, impressionistic performances incorporating all 71 rooms in the building.

They have also worked as producers at the Greenwich+Dockland’s Festivals, LIFT and the Royal Opera House.

“We worked together for the last four- and-a-half years at BAC, presenting work from its very beginning and looking for new and emerging artists,” says Harun. “During that time we just developed a great chemistry, so we saw the advantage in being a partnership. The basis of us applying for this job was the value of collaboration.

“I studied theatre design to begin with, and then got into being a director, but even then it was more complicated. So the journey was from design to directing and producing.”

“It was a similar journey for me,” adds Laura. “I went to Leeds University to study English and was interested in arts journalism. I edited the arts page in the university newspaper, but then I decided to take one step back and did an MA in film and theatre at York. It wasn’t until I returned to London that this idea of creative producing arose.”

It seems that a new career space has opened up between the old divide of artist and administrator.

“I think a good producer is an artist,” Harun says. “We definitely see ourselves as part of a new generation, with people like Richard Kingdom at the Bluecoat Gallery and other artistic directors that are really making their mark on the professional arts scene.”

Initially, I assumed that McDermott and Morrison would not be lured away from the London scene and that Fierce! would be in for a period of programming by remote control. In fact, I could not have been more wrong.

“A lot of people seem to assume that, but for us it doesn’t seem possible not to come and be embedded in the city,” says Laura. “I think the really big discovery for me so far is the incredible energy here.”

“We feel that Birmingham is on the cusp of having its moment as the next big cultural centre,” says Harun.

Laura and Harun will be outlining plans for their first festival in October, but, meanwhile, says Harun, this is a good time for people to be putting forward suggestions. They are also looking forward to building on the relationships with other West Midlands arts organisations which have been a feature of Fierce! in the past, from flying CBSO players in hot air balloons to staging “Ballet on the buses” with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

“I feel really proud of this legacy of Mark and the work he did,” says Laura. “When he heard we had been appointed, Mark told us to be bold, brave – and naughty!”

Fierce’s year-round programme continues this weekend with a sleepover at Compton Verney in Warwickshire, with dreams orchestrated by artist Luke Jerram.

There will also be a programme of events co-promoted with Warwick Arts Centre from September to December.

* Go to www.fiercetv.co.uk for more information.