It’s 5 days until kick off…
… No, not the England game, but London’s finest Camberwell Arts Festival, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary.
From the 14th June, Camberwell will once again become the urban gallery as artists take their work out of the studio and on to the fair streets of SE5, exhibiting in unusual locations, from bus-stops to billboards, cafes to car parks and pubs to parks. 20 public installations have been commissioned with help from Arts Council England, as well as a bigger better Lucky Dip arts competition.
This year there is even more performing arts, spoken word and live music then ever before: The wonderful Literary Kitchen Festival will take residency at the Peckham Pelican, championing new and emerging talent and acting as a hub to generate writing practices and a sense of community for writers.
St Giles Church will host two evenings of live music, one of which will feature the inimitable Ida Barr hosting The Pop-Up Choir’s 5th birthday on Saturday 14th June with music from Fleetwood Mac, Daft Punk and J‑Lo all washed down with a fully licensed bar. You’d be fools to miss it. (£6 on the door)
The festival also includes an exclusive Edinburgh preview by Nitroglicerina at The Bear along with a wealth of Fringe events which will include workshops by Camberwell UAL, public art installations throughout SE5 and an Open Studio weekend (21/22nd) showcasing the diversity of the local artistic community who hail from studios: Clockwork, Coldharbour, Empress Mews, Warrior, Vanguard as well as artists based at their own homes.
The festival opens this Saturday (14th June) with the ‘Made in Camberwell’ Art Market on Camberwell Green (10–5pm) bringing together some of the best hand crafted products by local artists, designers and creators of ceramics, fine art, photographic prints, textiles, bags and more.
And how do you celebrate a 20th anniversary? With China of course! Camberwell Arts is very proud to have collaborated with local design hero’s, Mini Moderns to release a range of already sought after commemorative mugs, which are on pre-order at Etsy and can be collected from the Arts Market.Don’t be a Mug: They are sure to become collectors items! Purchase a set of these Camberwell Beauties and 100% of the profit is invested back into the festival.
On Sunday 22rd June, once you’ve complete the Open Studio trail, kick back with an afternoon of Comedy in the Sun with an impressive lineup of comedic talent, followed by a trip to see Chutney8 and their annual encampment on Camberwell Green where we celebrate the end of this 20th arts festival with a carnival of the weird and wonderful.
Full programme details are now available at www.camberwellarts.org.uk/festival-2014 and a beautiful printed brochure is available throughout Camberwell. We suggest you grab a copy, and a highlighter pen and start planning how much you can squeeze in!
We had the last rehearsal before the Masters Of Pop gig last night, at St Giles. The Camberwell Community Choir came along too. Gotta say, it’s going to be blooming ace!
Get tickets here: http://www.wegottickets.com/thepopupchoir
looking forward to the Arts Festival.
Picked-up a copy of the Peckham Peculiar earlier. The cover photo is of the BMX track at Burgess Park.
Body on the line by our house yesterday afternoon — we took a new route home from school. A neighbour says the man was decapitated.“Self-inflicted,” a policeman by the tape told me.
On Thursday 12 June we got a “free” “Sun” “newspaper” through the door along with the usual clatter of chattering-class shite like the London Review of Books.
Men of England, the columnists who represent you in this freeshite are:
Desmond Morris, populist monkey expert from the Age of Aquarius, has been dead for years.
James Corden, pointless gobby dickhead on telly.
Tony Parsons, ersatz geezer, poor man’s Littlejohn.
Robbie Williams, fat dancer from Take That.
Jane Moore, token woman and self-styled hard bitch. Shagged-out Glenda Slagg.
Alex James, plastic geezer, so cool it’s not true.
Rod Liddle, posh, drawling neurotic, doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going. Hates London, but claims to support Millwall — duh.
Next thing we know, Ed Miliband will be shown grinning over his copy and putting on a Scouse accent to scrabble after a few votes up there.
The point of the “paper” was to support England and Englishness — and it was this lot they came up with. Did anyone else get this delivered?
Ours was not merely delivered, but conveyed through the letter box with the force of a Class 08 shunting engine. The postman, presumably, is not a “Sun person”.
The Peculiar is more superior.
True, Gabe, the Peculiar is superior. Not more superior. That’s like saying more better, or more betterer as they say down Peckham.
Camberwell Arts Week is here. A friend of mine has launched her contribution online. The work can be bought for a very small amount, considering what it will be worth in future years. It’s like buying early Warhol for tuppence in the early 1960s. Have a look.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PrintableRosie?ref=shop_sugg
The annual grad show at Camberwell College of Arts was fun as always last night.
We went on after to the Literary Kitchen event at the Peckham Pelican (it’s in Camberwell, so should really be called the Camberwell Cormorant but I’ll let it slide at the mo). Was fun and the pizzas are good too.
However, the highlight of the festival so far has to be the Pop Up Choir’s gig on Saturday night. But not because I was helping organise it or singing in it (I even done a solo but I never want to inflict that on people).
No it was the best night ever because there were 400 people there, the church was packed. People were standing on the pews to watch, eating fish and chips from the Flying Fish across the road.
Best of all, Ida Barr had everyone up in the aisles at the end to do the hokey kokey. Absolute glorious carnage and merriment. God would have been proud! At the very least Fr. Nick loved it, and that’s as close as we are going to get to a recommendation from God at the mo!
All together now, “put your left hand in, your left hand out, in, out, in, out, shake it all about!”
You can see a few photos of The Pop-Up Choir’s day here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.660280724053885.1073741837.108721019209861&type=3
The best guide to the World Cup is the Sun’s. They have an “If they were a car…” slot for each team. Engand:
“They would be a Mark 1 Cortina. This stylish English-made sport saloon was king of its class in the mid-60s but is now seen as a relic of a bygone age.”
Camberwell town centre was vibrantly alive last night, with people heading to bars and food after Arts Festival events. Yet again, I attended no events this year, but do love the buzz that the festival generates.