Rain Doesn't Dampen The Undercroft Weekender
29 July 2019The Undercroft Weekender was a storming success!
Families flocked in their 100s for arts, crafts, theatre and film shows in our first ever free family festival at Serpentine Green Shopping Centre in Peterborough.
We kicked off on Friday night with the world premiere of There Be Giants, a brand-new folktale for Hampton produced by our Associate Company Lamphouse Theatre, based in Peterborough.
Audiences couldn’t contain their laughter as the cast of three took them on a journey of gigantic proportion charting the history of Hampton featuring dragons, steam trains and of course the great crested newts.
Following this audiences were treated to an exclusive Behind-the-Scenes of Eastern Angles talk from Ivan Cutting - Artistic Director of Eastern Angles.
Performances of There Be Giants continued throughout the weekend to a jam-packed pavilion, quite often with standing room only.
There Be Giants perform in the Eastern Angles Pavilion
Mavis the Giant interacting with audience members
Saturday featured, Garlic Theatre’s captivating show, Three Little Pig Tails, Silhouette Selfies with Cyan Maiden, the Vivacity Book Bus, Hampton 2.0 and the Hampton Makes Music Drum Circle – beats and books galore. The CSK Church stand was buzzing and the talking benches were a big hit. Lamphouse Theatre delighted audiences young and old with their take on Romeo and Juliet with Suitcase Shakespeare – 45 minutes, 3 suitcases, 2 actors, many many hats!
In spite of the wet weather on Saturday & Sunday all the activities continued as planned and The Undercroft, Pavilion and Serpentine Green were alive!
Resident artist Korp hosted a Paint Jam with various artists in Studio 4, as well as creating murals on the walls outside the space.
The Drum Circle undercover in the tent on Silver Hill
Kids get creative with painting a unicorn in Studio 4 of The Undercroft
Music throughout the weekend was provided by our house band - folk group Frumenty. Alice Howard and Georgia Evans also provided an intimate music set to close Saturday night of The Undercroft Weekender.
After a bustling Saturday, Sunday was much more chilled with Vivacity running Pilates and the Drolma Centre were on hand to provide Family Relaxation. UROCK Theatre Company ran a Paddington Bear theatre workshop. And what better for a rainy Sunday afternoon than a hot chocolate and some black and white films in the form of Buster Keaton shorts and Roberta - a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classic.
Meanwhile in the shopping centre, Ricky Locke entertained the crowd with his magic, Peterborough Presents created dens and Cyan Maiden helped you weave your troubles away.
Mark Grist closed the festival with his brand-new show Down With the Poetry King, a treat to see before it headed off to Edinburgh.
Folk band Frumenty were the house band for the weekend
Ricky Locke entertains with magic at Serpentine Green
Mark Grist performs poetry in the Pavilion
Staff and volunteers armed with ponchos and braving the rain!
A massive thank you to everyone who came to The Undercroft Weekender! Particular thanks goes out to all our artists, performers and especially to the staff and volunteers for braving the rain! Many thanks to our funders: Arts Council England, Esmee Fairbairn and Viridor, and also to Serpentine Green staff and security for their support.
Our heads are full of ideas for future events, watch this space! Hopefully with some sunnier weather next time!
Attended the festival and want more info on Eastern Angles?