Image Credits to Suffolk Artlink and Lewis Wickwar.
A beautiful sunny day!
Me and Natalie Willis met at Stonecutters Way and filled our cars with all the
resources that had been listed. The packing was easy, everything was counted and packed into
suitcases and labelled. We had a cup of tea before leaving.
Sat Navs on and off we go!
Puddles on the road as we passed James Paget! I have a raincoat and as I’m following Natalie we
drive to hers to get her raincoat.
Way ahead of time!
We get to the off-loading area and wait for our turn to unload the cars.
We fill a large crate with our stuff and that is ferried down to the Pirate Circus . We think it looks like
a teepee on the map.
We go to Seagulls to park the cars. The young man there says ‘Sorry the number plates aren’t on the
list. You can’t park here!’ Natalie explains that we should be on the list. He makes a phone call and
says ‘ No you are definitely not on the list. Sorry’ As we turn the cars around he receives a call to say
that we can park. That was lucky!
We walk to the beach and find that we are in a large marquee. Once the earlier activity finishes we
close the doors and everyone sets up the area. Bella brought 4 large tie-dyed sheets for the floor and
we also have four other mats for the floor.
Bunting is put up around the sides and elastic is hung almost centrally across the room from which
sea creatures are hung .
The plan was for each mat to have separate loose parts gathered together on the mats eg. Bowls
and sticks on one mat, a large amount of silver paper coming out of a large plastic bowl, large reels
on a mat and teapots without lids on another. The plan was to keep everything as separate as
possible to prevent it looking chaotic!
At 3 o’clock we open the doors just as the heavens opened and a rush of people of all ages rushed in
for cover! The rain sounded heavy on the canvas so people’s voices were raised as they talked to
each other!
I sat at the back with the bowls and sticks.
A boy about 8 came and sat down and began playing with 3 bowls next to a smaller child who had 2 bowls. The boy listened intently at the different sounds he was making using different Size bowls.The small child moved away and the boy gave me eye contact and smiled as he banged the bowls. I gave him the spare bowls that the child had finished playing with. The boy started to play louder, quite fast and rhythmically to the already loud, chaotic environment. He mother tapped him on the shoulder and said ‘Not so loud!’ I said to her ‘ When will he get another chance to be this loud? ‘ ( I felt he was creating music to the atmosphere, not just bashing away to be loud and annoying). After about 5 minutes he looked at me and said
‘ This is the best thing ever!’
He had the biggest smile and continued playing.some more. He mum said Thank you to me as they left.
I moved around to the silver paper mat and my granddaughter came in to say Hello and give me a
hug. I turned the basket over and she stood on it and I dressed her in silver foil. A small child
watching us wanted a turn so my granddaughter then dressed her and they took turns dressing each
other both enjoying each others company.
The rain stopped and a lot of people left the marquee, leaving it in a chaotic disarray. The workers
were all engaged in play or returning loose parts back to mats or being creative with the mixed loose
parts.
A dad was watching his son build the plastic spools up as high as he could. He encouraged him to
build it as high as he could. When the boy could no longer reach the top of the spool his dad lifted
him up. The spools fell a couple of times but they continued to rebuild it. When the dad lifted the
boy as high as he could to put one final spool on the top everyone in the marquee cheered!
We had a community feeling within our space.
We finished the session with bubbles and a singalong. A boy took the ukulele from Natalie and
entertained a small crowd with his renditions of some cover songs. His mum stood proudly in the
circle, smiling and said ‘ I knew he went to lunchtime ukulele club but I never knew he was an
Entertainer!’
I had to pack up the bowls for the singing to be heard. Natalie sang the Adventure song which
everyone enjoyed. This was repeated a few times before Natalie ended by saying Thanks for coming
but you really do have to go!
We packed up slowly while people realised they had to leave.
What a great afternoon! Great team and well organised!
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