This year, All Points East will be joining forces with even more local partners to bring a packed programme of free events across May half term.
In The Neighbourhood—which kicks off on May’s second Bank Holiday Monday—will feature a diverse mix of family-friendly activities, including outdoor cinema, live music, sports, arts and crafts, theatre and more. Global Local will be putting together an exciting line-up of local artists and musicians, Rich Mix and Hackney Arts will be delivering creative workshops and sports and wellbeing activities will come from the likes of Tower Hamlets Tennis, MoreYoga, Upswing and Chisenhale Dance. There will also be a dedicated kids’ area with storytelling from Museum of London Docklands and performances from Half Moon Theatre.
In The Neighbourhood will also feature a selection of pop-up food and drink stalls, including a craft beer festival on Bank Holiday Monday with more than 20 local brewers.
Event manager, Jenny Hamada, says: “Following the success of last year’s event, many of our local partners will be returning as we continue to build relationships with the community. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole city come together again in Victoria Park to experience the best of what Tower Hamlets and east London has to showcase—all without having to spend a penny!”
This week, we chat to Hackney Arts and Rich Mix about their involvement with In The Neighbourhood.
Hackney Arts
For their second year at the festival, Hackney Arts will be returning with a series of free arts and crafts workshops from Monday to Thursday. Lead by artists from Hackney and east London, activities will include screen printing, making dream catchers, flower headbands, bamboo wind chimes and more.
Many of the workshops will focus on sustainability and involve natural, recycled materials. Festival-goers can have a go at upcycling jars and containers into planters, learn how to tie-dye using natural dyes made from plants and vegetables, and make festival flags from material scraps.
Hackney Arts will also have a guest slot from fellow social enterprise Poetry in Wood, who specialise in creative training programmes for individuals with learning difficulties, and will be making wooden key rings.
Sophie Thompson, founder and CEO of Hackney Arts, says: “The activities at In The Neighbourhood really reflect the local area and the local creatives—it’s going to be really fun.
“One of the things we are really excited about for All Points East this year is that we’ve gone for a big focus on sustainability. We’re going to be teaching skills like upcycling, how to tie-dye using natural dye and using repurposed materials, which reflects All Points East’s green credentials as a festival and our own as a company.”
Rich Mix
For the past two years, East End arts centre Rich Mix have run PLAY-HOUSE—a free family festival across the Easter weekend. This year, they are relocating the event to Victoria Park to be part of In The Neighbourhood.
On Bank Holiday Monday, Rich Mix have partnered with seven local artists and arts organisations to put together a whole day of free activities based on their ‘Be Bold. Be Heard’ theme.
Highlights include local street poet Mr Gee presenting a spoken word workshop on east London’s identity, storytelling and puppet-making with Storycraft, and an interactive sound walk called ‘Generation Grime:Back2Bow’, which explores the origins of grime music in Bow.
Margot Przymierska, young people’s, family and community producer at Rich Mix, says: “We were just so thrilled to be part of the programme. We want to instigate a debate and conversation and actually explore the different languages and modes of communication that people employ in this area, because we are in a fantastically versatile borough.”
Talking about his poetry workshop, Mr Gee says: “It’s about trying to bring together the personalities, the places and the poetry of east London and get people to realise that anybody can be a poet.
“It’s about your thoughts, your ideas, your expressions, your joy, your pain and your ambitions. We can put it all together and allow people to be bold and be heard.”
In The Neighbourhood will take place from May 27-30. The full programme is available at apefe.st/nbhd
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