Thank you St Helens!
Heart of Glass invited me to think about developing a festival of art events for St. Helens. After several brews and a few pie barns we launched Take Over Fest in September!
Across 9 events, over 3 months a massive 2000 of you from across all 5 boroughs laughed, cried and ate roast dinner sandwiches with us.
We transformed old shoe shops into art cafes, The Hotties into a feminist ghost train; we even put a pop-up-stand-up-poetry-club in Central Library!
My personal highlights include watching 150 children at Kids Rave get covered in cereal, the beautiful Le Gateau Chocolat transform the World of Glass cone into a night at the opera, the brilliant Grey Ladies (a performance group of local young women) make me jump out of my skin for Halloween, Jayde Adams’ unforgettable Adele impersonation at Camp and Jack Rooke’s intimate taxi journeys across town discussing the loss of his Dad.
All of 30 artists involved from across the country have all said how warm the people of St. Helens are, in fact whilst touring Camp one audience member said they knew St. Helens and before they could say anything Jayde Adams said “I hope you’re going to say something nice, the people of St. Helens have been kind to me!”
By far the greatest thing I will take away from Take Over Fest is the response from you – the punters! You gave us your time and money and we’ve had some really lovely feedback from all the events.
I’ve been given a Saints kit, got a loyalty card at Lily’s and experienced the warmth of you lovely lot so I’m committed to St. Helens! This week I’m at the Heart of Glass office (the old Beechams building) planning some exciting new things for 2016! I can’t give away too much just yet but keep your eyes peeled! As a famous man once said – I’ll be back!
Scottee
Free