On Sunday 5 October, between 11am and 6pm, Brockwell Lido will be transformed into a Fun Palace. You’ll be able to swim with mermaids, paddle a kayak, watch Barry the Illusioneer, ask a physicist about the effects on water on the body, play human noughts & crosses, learn to sign, play new ball craze Waboba (there are freebies too!) and do a host of other things… and all for free. Everyone is welcome. Lanes will still be open for regular swimmers and the poolside area by the gym will be a Fun Palace free zone. Everything else will become our Fun Palace.
In 1961, theatre director Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric Price had the idea to create a fun palace, a ‘laboratory of fun,’: a place where the community could engage, learn and participate. Joan said, ‘everyone an artist, everyone a scientist,’ with an emphasis on arts and science coming together. Their Fun Palace never happened, the space wasn’t available, they needed technology but didn’t have it – but we do. Now, in our own way, as a tribute to them in Joan’s centenary year, there are Fun Palaces popping up all over the country. To date over 100 have signed up, including the RSC, the Southbank, a chocolate shop in Chester, and the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.
Who knows what kind of Fun Palace Joan and Cedric would have intended? We are not trying to second-guess what theirs might have been, but are taking their idea and making it our own. It’s very much up to each community to decide what to do, but everyone is welcome to create and be part of the process. Credit goes to local writer/director Stella Duffy who had the idea to take Joan and Cedric’s idea and make Fun Palaces happen. Along with her co-director Sarah-Jane Rawlings, they had the mammoth task of facilitating everything, taking an idea and making everyone understand it, involving website designers, getting people and companies and communities involved.
So what exactly is a Fun Palace? See http://funpalaces.co.uk/about/
And our page – http://funpalaces.co.uk/discover/brockwell-lido-fun-palace/I’ve never put together anything like this before – I’m a writer, mine is a mostly solitary job. Making the Brockwell Lido Fun Palace take shape has been an extraordinary experience, where I have asked for help, and received it, and learned a whole new set of skills I didn’t know I had! Along with our group of Fun Palaceers, made up of friends and strangers, and my brilliant co-fundraiser, Maggie Saunders, dozens of people have said yes to being part of the process. It’s also allowed me to engage more with my own community – I now have a real sense of what that word means and how we can all help each other. It’s been a pleasure, hard work, time consuming, but always satisfying.
Everyone has – and is – giving their time for free. We are fortunate to have been sponsored by mostly local companies, Fusion at Brockwell Lido have been totally supportive, as has the Lido Café. They will be offering 50% off their regular BBQ rate on Fun Palace day. We’re hoping to show a film, but are awaiting confirmation. Follow us on Twitter @BLIDOFUNPALACE to keep up to date. And if you are keen to volunteer on the day or post flyers for us, we welcome you. Our next meeting is on Monday 1 September at the Lido Café @6pm. This will be the last one before the Fun Palace happens. And if you’re really lucky you may get to see a Mermaid…
Shelley Silas
Brockwell Lido Fun Palace Maker
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