Turbine Festival 2015

The Turbine Festival held at the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern was held this year on Saturday 25 July 2015. The Festival is subtitled “One City One Day” bringing audio-visual experience to anyone that attends.

The event encourages everyone to get involved with the art installations, workshops and activities on display. The day included photography, music, art and technology as they explore different ways to explore different facets of experiencing from using the Oculus to transport to another virtual plane to DJing on a makeshift art turntable to getting your hair styled completely different to what you came in with.

What I particularly liked was FREE2Dance created by Evan Ifekoya where you are given headphones and encouraged to dance like no one is watching. Which I do most of the times anyway!

Live performances come from the main stage set up right at the end of Turbine Hall and I managed to catch Juneau Projects performing as they used their electronic instruments built from perspex, arcade machines and drum triggers.

They’ve created the My Culture Museum as an exhibition where anyone can submit an image of each individual’s culture representation, which could be anything that they wanted it to be. The image would then be displayed in the My Culture Museum exhibition.

#TurbineFestival

Whitecross Street Party 2015

The Whitecross Street Party takes place on – you guessed it – White Cross Street in Islington near to the Barbican. It is an annual summer event of performances, food and entertainment. Usually over a two day period but this year has been packed into a whole day. The event was held on Saturday 18 July 2015 between 12:00 to 18:00.

The event’s exhibition “Rise of the Non Conformists” was set up by a group of took inspiration from William Blake where he was laid to rest. The event encourages “peaceful non-conformists to rise once again”. The exhibition is drawn live during the day with their final artworks displayed along Whitecross Street for 2 months. There are also art installations dotted up and down the street.

The event is family-friendly with lots to do with the children as the event caters with various areas where children can play and participate in workshops. Fortune Street Park which stems from Whitecross Street became a children’s activity zone with a bouncy castle, an area for face painting and a play area.

There are performances set up on stages and canopies running along the street with performances from solo artists and groups.

The stages are interspersed with stalls of food and an array of items ranging from clothing to artworks.

Summer Streets 2015 - Garden Party

Every Sunday of this month, Regent Street is to become traffic-free for a whole day of theme events for Summer Streets.

On 5 Sunday, the street was transformed into pop-entertainments, activities and greenery as Regent Street is transformed for the theme of Garden Party. Some of the goings-on on the day include:

• Music from the Mayor of London’s GIGS compete with performances of live music.
• Acoustic French opera performance.
• Look at Formula 1 car and a chance to try it out on the simulators with Tumi.
• Setting eyes on gorgeous Husky dogs at the Icebar London area.
• Decking out at Heart London Radio 106.2 on their huge deck shairs
• Sustainable Bee and Butterfly Zone to get back in touch with nature.
• Seating areas including green lawns, an area of Tommy Hilfiger deckchairs.

Other themes to follow this month are Health Kick (12 July), Fashion Festival (19 July) and Culture Club (26 July).

#SummerStreets

Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppet Festival 2015

The Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppet Festival is an annual event held in and by St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden West Piazza. It’s a celebration of Samuel Pepys’s first sighting of Mr. Punch 353 years ago with this year being the 40th anniversary of the event. It was held on Sunday 10 May 2015.

The event holds many activities for everyone alike to enjoy. There are puppet shows which are shown throughout the day which brings Judy and Punch professors and puppeteers across the country together for this occasion. There are many other things run throughout the day such as a procession accompanied by a brass band which starts at 11am and followed by church service at 12pm. Other activities throughout the day are music from folk groups, maypole dancing for the children, stalls selling various animate objects (puppet galore!) and many clowns (coulrophobia beware!).