PROGRAMME

Local Partners: The Avenues Youth Project, Octavia Foundation, Happy Lizzy Event Planning and Hormead Road residents, AF Legacy CIC, Gig Buddies, Goldfinger Factory & The Golborne Collective

Saturday 20th July 2024 | 12-5pm

Open Garden tours of Gerry’s Pompeii
3 tours run on the hour at: 12pm / 2pm / 4pm*

Address: Hormead Road, W9 3NQ (full address on booking your spot)

Tours are free (donations are very much appreciated!) but booking is essential!

All tours (can select from); 12pm : 2pm or 4pm

12&2pm: With (mostly) irish tunes played by Fidelma Hanrahan & Alex McKenzie (of Shovel Dance Collective)

Address: Meanwhile Gardens, 156 - 158 Kensal Rd, London W10 5BN

12 - 5pm: The Playable Picnic with Louise Ashcroft x Octavia Foundation
Address: Meanwhile Gardens, W10 5BN (see map for starting point.)

Come and fling teabags at Louise Ashcroft’s picnic set, which is adorned with paintings of locally available foods by members of local organisation, Octavia Foundation! Depending on your throwing skills you will be asked to come up with descriptions of either real, special and imagined local or global food delicacies and memories, the more imaginative and convincing your answers the sweeter your prize…

12 - 5pm: The Great Adventures of Dick Whittington's Calypso Cat with Kyra Zhang & Sharmain Gordon-Forde x The Avenues Youth Project

Address: Meanwhile Gardens (see map for starting point.)
Kyra Zhang and Sharmain Gordon-Forde have been making DIY instruments with young people from local youth organisation The Avenues Youth Project with various found materials.

Join us for an interactive and engaging sonic treasure hunt at Meanwhile Gardens, inspired by the story of Dick Whittington’s cat. Hunt down eight clues spread across Meanwhile Gardens. Each clue will lead to a part of Dick’s cat’s journal and hint on how to play these co-created magic sonic objects that each trigger special tones! You’ll have to play to find out what it chimes!

12-5pm: RAREE GELLY: What’s in the Box? With Sienna Murdoch x PiP
Address: Meanwhile Gardens, W10 5BN (see map for starting point.)

Sienna Murdoch has been working in collaboration with local organisation PiP, who empowers adults with learning disabilities to devise special, sensory gelly shapes and devise tactile games to be played at the fete.

This workshop is based on the old traditions of the Raree (or peep) show but with a sensory twist! Roll up, roll up and feel, peer or listen inside the mysterious box, prepare to uncover secrets and mysteries (perhaps of your own) as you use your hands, eyes and ears to help you understand…

12 - 5pm: The Urban Pony Ride (skate games) with Otto Stoneman
Address: Meanwhile Gardens, W10 5BN (see map for starting point.)

Otto Stoneman will invite local participants to feel confident on ‘the urban pony ride’, aka. a skateboard. You will have the chance to try out quirky challenges and games and he’ll help you test your balance, coordination and timing. All abilities and experiences are welcomed.

12-5pm Gig Buddies: ‘Gone Fishing’ with Gig Buddies
Address: Meanwhile Gardens, W10 5BN (see map for starting point.)

Gig Buddies, a local organisation that helps pair up volunteers keen with adults with learning disabilities to go to fun events together, will have an interactive game based on the statistics on how many people with learning disabilities and/or Autism get to access a social life.

3- 5pm: Performance by infamous West London Steel Band The Metronomes,

*From 4-4.30: You will be able to go and learn the art of the steel-pan in a mini workshop with Metronomes Eversley.
Address: Meanwhile Gardens, W10 5BN (see map for starting point.)

Sunday 21st July 2024 | 12-5pm

All Sunday’s activities will take place at Meanwhile Gardens, 156 - 158 Kensal Rd, London W10 5BN (see map for different locations of all the fete games.)

12, 2 and 4pm. We Be Tree & Terra Tree with Plant Listening’s Tamara Colchester x The Avenues Youth Project

Tamara Colchester & Plant Listening have been teaching local youth group The Avenues about the properties of local plants and trees in Meanwhile gardens. The young peoople have also been learning about historical woodland manifestations and have been devising a magical, mythical woodland creature with its own special qualities.

Keep your eyes and ears attuned to the rustlings in the trees, something is starting to stir… Plant listening will help you uncover some of the mysteries of the gardens and arm you with nature’s tools that help us thrive.

Scroll down for a sneak-peek at the multi-sensory wild plant walk Plant Listening led for Avenues Youth Project in May. You’ll be able to join a walk at 12 & 4pm, all ages are welcome.

12 - 5pm: The Great Adventures of Dick Whittington's Calypso Cat with Kyra Zhang & Sharmain Gordon-Forde x The Avenues Youth Project (see project description and location above)

12-5pm: RAREE GELLY: What’s in the Box? with Sienna Murdoch x PiP (see project description and location above)

12 - 5pm: The Urban Pony Ride (skate games) with Otto Stoneman (see project description and location above)

1-4pm: The Golborne Collective Charade & Bucket List (Act out Golborne’s dream village square). Local people conspiring community and health in Golborne.

12- 5pm We are collaborating with AF Legacy CIC, celebrating diverse voices and community empowerment! Partnering with local vendors, enjoy the flavours of West London with Eritrean, Caribbean and Moroccan cuisine and acoustic performances by local artists!

Hormead Roaders will present a specially developed Fete game inspired by their friend and neighbour Gerry…

Benches contributed by Goldfinger, inspired by Trellick Tower and made by their Future Makers trainees in collaboration with Morley College.

FERRET ROULETTE with HORMEAD ROADERS

To kick start our Alternative Village Fete we held a game of FERRET ROULETTE, a project devised by artist Hermione Spriggs in collaboration with Kyle Berlin & Sue Lloyd (Yarm Ferret Rescue).

FERRET ROULETTE is a mythic device that uses the wisdom of ferrets to divine answers to human questions.

Ferret Roulette adopts the basic principle of a game played with ferrets at rural agricultural fairs. In Ferret Roulette, a ferret is placed in a central chamber and emerges at random from one of six exits. Members of the public then place bets on which exit the ferret will choose.

Formally, Ferret Roulette resembles the millenia-old practice of ferreting for rabbits, where ferrets are sent into rabbit warrens and appear again from one of many rabbit holes on the surface. Due to their hunting behaviour in the wild, ferrets have an instinctual love of dark places and anything resembling a rabbit hole. Male ferrets are known as ‘hobs’, and share this name with Yorkshire hobs or hobgoblins – trickster spirits known for their mischievous behaviour who inhabit and animate the land around the North York Moors.

In our version of the game, instead of betting for money, the ferret performed as guides, helping to generate poetic responses to a series of questions posed by local residents.

MULTI-SENSORY WILD PLANT LEARNING WITH PLANT LISTENING X AVENUES YOUTH PROJECT