Folkestone is to see a new creative project arrive in the town this winter with the launch of A Seaside Year bringing twelve months of new performing arts events and activities to the town.
Four key scheduled events for Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn will make up the programme for A Seaside Year, which is organised by local company Futuredream Media.
The first event A Seaside Year: Winter will take place in December with artist Lottie Child exploring what the community thinks about Folkestones Old Town. This thought provoking event will invite local residents to speak with Lottie at the Peoples History Centre on The Old High Street between Monday 4th December and Thursday 7th December.
Lottie will gain a sense of identity for Folkestones Old Town area, through the thoughts, memories and narratives of its people, by speaking to them and going for walks around the Tontine Street / Old High Street area. Lottie says, My question is how does the built environment shape our behaviour, movement and thoughts? I would like a variety of people to take me for a walk around Folkestone and show me the town as they inhabit it. From these walks, I will create a trail with activities for participants to try. Lottie is looking for a wide variety of people to speak to and can be contacted by sending an email to lottie@seasideyear.co.uk or by telephoning 0796 201 2822
The result of Lotties interviews with residents will be a trail for all of the community to participate in on Saturday 9th December. Participants will be armed with a map, clues and their wits to follow the trail, which will be available from the Peoples History Centre and other locations in the Old Town and harbour area between 10am and 3pm.
Director, Cathy Westbrook from Futuredream Media, located in Folkestone, says; A Seaside Year: Winter is a great opportunity to help create and experience an alternative winter wonderland walk of Folkestone. The trails will be available on Saturday 9th December. With lots of other traditional goings-on in the town in the run up to Christmas, this will be something quirky and off-beat for people to explore.
The results of A Seaside Year: Winter, will also be archived at the Peoples History Centre as an oral narrative of Folkestones history, building up the long-term history of Folkestone for future generations.
More Seaside Year for 2007
The Winter event launches A Seaside Year. There will be more activities to get involved in as the year progresses. Artist-in-residence, Geraldine Pilgrim, will be following the events and working with various groups to look in more detail at some of the ideas which arise. There will be performances on 31st March, 4th August and 27th October 2007. For more information see seasideyear.co.uk1
This is part of my website The 'Gerald that I set up in a fury of excitement when I first came here in approximately 2004. I'd been a regular visitor for a while before that but I am technically one of those Down From Londons you get nowadays. This site was updated more frequently with a calendar of events + voting for favourite places and things, + I know it was a useful resource for those who were thinking of moving here. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though only to Hythe) it doesn't get as much attention as it used to. Ironic really as The town is now becoming the exciting place we knew it was just about to. My name is not Gerald by the way, the name comes from a pretend paper in an episode of Brasseye or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, and how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are GRATE aren't they? Do get in touch if you have something to offer, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on Twitter.