Duncan Hodgson gives you a round up of Blackpool’s Creative Summer 2012 including Me&FYC pop-up shop, Rebellion Festival, Charabanc, Alfresco Cowbell Carnival and Pure Evil by the Seaside.
Well we’ve reached the end of summer 2012 and what an action packed couple of months it has been. Back in July when we started altblackpool we were pretty confident that there was a huge range of things happening in the Blackpool creative scene that needed to be celebrated – and how right we were. We’ve seen everything from a weekend of punk to the opening of Blackpool’s own vintage and craft shop.
Back at the start of August Blackpool was treated to the return of Rebellion Punk Festival with a whopping 40 acts per day over 6 stages at the world famous Winter Gardens including performances from Jonny Rotton’s PiL, Buzzcocks, Rancid and many more besides. Rebellion is clearly a well established fixture of the Blackpool calendar and altblackpool’s Caroline Fisher gave us a bumper review of the whole weekend – she can’t wait for the next one.
Early in the month we saw the first in what will be a series of pop-up gallery events in the artBURST series, giving local artists and opportunity to showcase their work to the world. artBURST is a pop-up exhibition space which will be taking place every three months in a variety of locations throughout Blackpool. The first showing took place at Baseline on Victoria Street and the theme was locality, with pieces included from many local artists including Robin Ross, Carlito Juanito, Yappers Chappers, The Crafty Squirrel, John Marc Allen, Linda Hoey, Paul F Harding, Tim Wells, Red Fox Pottery, Punk Rock Cartoons, Emily Grace Smith, Brendan Bunting and Elizabeth Ward.
Further into the month we saw what independent fashion label, me&yu‘s Angie Hulme, described as “Blackpool Fashion Week” (let’s hope that is a phrase that sticks around) with Me&FYC pop-up boutique opening from the 18th August right through until the 1st of September showcasing the products of many local creatives at FYCreatives on Church Street. The project was a collaboration between FYCreatives and me&yu and was a huge success, giving much needed profile to a whole range of talented and creative designers and makers from around the town. As if that wasn’t enough, just a week later we were treated to the launch of Charabanc, another vintage and craft boutique which is here to stay on South King Street, bringing vintage and craft to Blackpool’s high street. If you’ve not been down for a browse yet we would urge you to do so.
Blackpool still had more to give towards the end of the month with North Pier playing host to world class street artist, Pure Evil. Pure Evil had been billed to appear at this year’s Sand, Sea & Spray Urban Art Festival earlier in the year but due to other commitments couldn’t make it – true to his word however he was in town on Bank Holiday Weekend to give a free workshop and question & answer session, plus the sale of limited edition prints to the lucky few who managed to get their hands on them.
To round off Blackpool’s creative summer we saw the return of Alfresco Family Events to Blackpool Cricket Club with their phenomenal Alfresco Cowbell Carnival on Sunday the 2nd September 2012 with a host of Cowbell Radio’s finest DJs across the day, great food and fun for all the family in the glorious sunshine – you simply couldn’t have asked for a better day, we can’t wait until the next one.
All in all, it has been a summer of creativity and expression in Blackpool and here at altblackpool we hope that the next few months will be just as action packed, and we’re sure they will be with upcoming events including the first ever One Of These Days Festival in December.
Show Comments (2)
Christo
Surprised not to see a mention of the poetry anthology of Blackpoolisms published by Blackpool Dead Good Poets’ Society nor their Haunted Blackpool additions opposite what was The Miners’ Home on The Cliffs at Bispham.
Next meeting at No.5 Cafe Cedar Square this coming Friday, 14th. September from 6.00 pm.
Duncan Hodgson
Hi Christo
I just yesterday answered this very same question over on Facebook as to why the Blackpool Dead Good Poets’ Society information wasn’t included in this round up and the simple fact is that we are a magazine entirely run by volunteers, as a result of this we can’t always get round everything sadly – much as we would like to. I’d be really keen to engage with people from the Dead Good Poets to ensure that we can cover their events going forward. If anyone is interested in becoming a contributor all they need need to do is visit our Become a Contributor page.
Cheers
Duncan