The Big Event
When: Midsummer's Eve, Saturday 20th June, 2009 Time: 2pm - 7pm
Where: Myatt's Fields Park, Knatchbull Road, Camberwell SE5
‘Highly original, brilliantly executed and actually very thought provoking, particularly in reference to the social history of the Park and the Victoria era that was evoked.’ Audience member
‘The Big Event was a joyful, memorable and hugely successful celebration of all the communities around Myatt’s Fields and how they can come together and have a great time’ Louisa Buck, art critic & writer
‘breathtaking, startling, surprising, sometimes hilarious, and utterly brilliant’ Lindsey Avebury, Chair Myatt’s Fields Park Project
A free event for all on Midsummer’s Eve, the launch event of Camberwell Arts Festival and a major partner in The Story of London Festival. The Big Event officially marked the re-opening of the park after its extensive £3m renovation. Opened in 1889, the park was designed by Fanny Wilkinson, one of the first female professional landscape gardeners and a well known supporter of women’s suffrage.
The event was inspired by the Victorian heritage of the park, celebrating the familiar as well as the more quirky Victorian performance and cultural traditions, including: a mass ukulele jam, tea dance, Big Top performance programme, mass carnival procession and artists’ sideshow stalls.
Participants: Ludmilla Andrews, Kinetika Bloco, Caragh Buxton, Charles Edward Brooke School, Bygones Rent a Mob, Camberwell Choir School, Rosie Cooper, South Connections & The Myatt’s Junkeno, Danielle Dean, Adam Dant, The Dulwich Ukulele Club, Marcia Farquhar, Christopher Green, Jenny Hayton, Martina von Holn, The Insect Circus, Jim Jukes King of Camberwell with the Pearly Queen of Bermonsey, The Judy & Punch Show, Kakatsitsi, Daniel Lehan, Loughborough Primary, Lottie Leedham, Natasha Mann, McApline Dance School, St Michael & All Angels Academy, Tim Mitchell, Mirror Mirror Education, Moving into Age, The Nest, The Old Palace Clog, Clare Patey, Plunge Boom with the Vegetable Nannies, Rediscovered Urban Rituals, Perdita Robbins, Salsateca, Splatrix Circus, Search Party, South Island Workshop, Yara El-Sherbini, Splatrix Circus, Bob & Roberta Smith, Ragroof Theatre, Rachel Tweddell, The Quintessential Victorian Tea Party, Isabel Walker, Eva Weaver, Society of Wonders.
Partners: Myatt’s Fields Park Project Group, Lambeth Council, Southwark Council, Creative Camberwell, Camberwell Arts, Story of London, Love London Green Festival
Supported by: The Arts Council, Lambeth Council, Southwark Council, The Heritage Lottery Fund, Co-op Community Fund, Southwark Alliance, The Minet Conservation Association
Principal Sponsor: Cowling & Wilcox.
Sponsors: New Dewaniam, Sun & Doves, The Castle, Veolia, Taximedia
