Summer 2023 Children’s events in the
Walled Garden Project at Park Hill Park
As part of Croydon’s London Borough of Culture events the Friends of Park Hill Park are delighted to announce a short series of professional performances and workshops for children to be performed this August in Park Hill Park’s Walled Garden Project: a community garden designed, created and maintained by the Friends volunteers.
There are free limited amount of tickets for all the children’s events. Please book via Eventbrite as soon as possible as the events are expected to be very popular.
London Borough of Culture is a Mayor of London initiative,
with support from Arts Council England and National Lottery
Heritage Fund. The This is Croydon programme is being delivered through a unique collaboration between the cultural organisations and people of the borough in partnership with Croydon Council.
‘Stories in Gardens’ with Jenny Lockyer
Following its great popularity in 2022, ‘Stories in Gardens’ is returning to Park Hill Park’s Walled Garden Project in summer 2023!
From Wednesday 9th August to Saturday 12th August, children aged 0-6 years and their parents, or carers, can enjoy ‘Stories in Gardens’ from 10am to 12noon inspired by the Walled Garden and its unique heritage through a mixture of live music, craft, puppetry and stories.
‘Stories in Gardens’ director, Jenny Lockyer will be leading the sessions and writing a song inspired by the Walled Garden’s historic and environmental heritage. Jenny says, “Park Hill Park’s Walled Garden Project has a culturally rich heritage, alive not only with Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies and the work of the Horniman Family, founders of the world famous Museum, whose Walled Garden it once was, but also through the environmental work of the Friends volunteers”.
Each morning is split into four sessions celebrating the garden and the memories it is alive with, in its history, present and future.
The ‘Stories in Gardens’ sessions will be firstly, ‘A Magical Garden’ introducing the magic of fairies and other magical folk that the children may be lucky to find in The Walled Garden.
Secondly, ‘A Talking Garden’. This session will be exploring how from gardener to bee, everything in the garden has a role to play and must communicate and work together for the garden to thrive. What news will you have to tell the bees?
The third session is ‘A Blooming Garden’ where everyone can enjoy the fruits of their labours with a riot of colour and taste.
With the final fourth session, ‘A Musical Garden’ visitors can enjoy a live, accessible, family concert in the Walled Garden Project’s meeting space, featuring the specially written song, a recording of which will be made available for download shortly after the event.
Each ticket is for one child and up to two parents or carers.
For more details about Jenny and her work, you can visit www.JennyLockyer.co.uk.
‘Choogh Choogh’ with Beeja
Currently performing to a resounding success at arts festivals across the UK, including most recently the famous Brighton Festival, ‘choogh choogh’ will be doing two performances in Park Hill Park’s Walled Garden Project on Sunday 13th August.
It is a performance for younger children (early years / under 5s) inspired by the joy for travelling through India on a train combining classical Indian dance with contemporary movement, theatre and play, sharing with audiences a world full of colour, invention and flow.
The journey starts with the audience getting a special ‘choogh choogh’ ticket. Three artists weave a traveling tapestry with three scarves, morphing from one scene to the next as the sights, sounds and smells whiz by.
The sound scape is rich with the sounds of the train, hawkers, festivals, musicians, ambient sounds of river, jungles and cities. The artists sing songs which are specially written for children – Chai Chai, Coffee Coffee and Kites Kites everywhere. They interact with the audience, engaging their imagination. Scarves become steam, railway tracks, turbans, train windows, camel, elephant and so much more.
It is a journey where audiences experience a world inside the train, through the train and outside it. Along the way the ticket gets checked, imaginary food is sold and shared, among other interactions. This show is an exploration of just how much we can see and imagine, together, as the train ‘chooghs chooghs’ on.
For more details about BEEJA, you can visit www.Beeja.com.
© Images by Vipul Sangoi
