Are you a lion, bee, frog, stag, fox, fish or owl?
Discover more from Stored Honey
Are you a lion, bee, frog, stag, fox, fish or owl?
This week: Just So festival in Cheshire, Stuart Maconie at Liverpool Literary Festival, Gosforth Civic Theatre reopens, Manchester’s Curry Mile in photos
Where do you stand on adults dressing up? Enthusiastically in favour, poised to fashion something fabulous out of a green wig and a roll of duct tape at the sound of an invitation pinging on WhatsApp? Or, like Kimchi and karaoke, the idea’s fun but in practice other people seem to enjoy it more than you do?
I am firmly in the second camp. I enjoy making fancy dress for my kids - although this year’s incessant parade of Halloween, Christmas Accessory Day, World Book Day, Coronation, Pirate Day, International Hats Day and Eurovision drove me to open the Amazon app more often than I like to confess. But for the grown-ups in our house, where my husband gets out the same Ghostbuster costume every October 31 (the inflatable proton pack has a puncture), dressing up is more an observational pastime.
Enter Just So - the family festival I accidentally first turned up to with no costumes. There is little that will make a parents’ heart crack with guilt more than the face of a three-year-old who has realised she is the only kid in the field not dressed as animal.
Suspicious as I was of the adults embracing the costume element of Just So, which returns to Rode Park, Cheshire, this weekend, it is definitely one of the many things that makes it special. By choosing to dress as an animal, you become part of a tribe (foxes, bees, lions, stags, frogs, fish or owls) and that immediately gives you a sense of belonging.
You find yourself waving at strangers simply because you both decided to come dressed in fish scales
As a tribe member you can join in games, collect golden pebbles for acts of kindness, sharing a talent or telling a joke, and take part in a parade at the end of the weekend where the tribe with the most golden pebbles is crowned. The tribal system creates a sense of community where you find yourself waving at strangers simply because you both decided to come dressed in fish scales that year.
If you’re not into dressing up or tribes, that’s fine too. There’s no obligation to join in and nobody makes you feel weird for not fully embracing that side of the festival. Instead, you can just enjoy the other great thing that makes Just So special - the independent artists, acts, musicians, authors and other entertainers who make up the programme.
There are no Peppa Pigs or Sonics lurking in the Spellbound Forest to surprise you with irresistible merch that your kids will spend the next two days nagging you about. Instead, you’ll find a scoutmaster leading a singsong around a campfire and storytellers weaving yarns from distance places.
Elsewhere, there are circus performers, suitcase and regular-sized theatre, a science discovery den, an astronaut training camp and a giant egg and spoon race. You can learn to play the ukulele, walk on a trapeze, make a seed bomb, dance around a maypole, how to survive in a forest and sing in harmony.
It’s like childhood imagined in old-fashioned children’s books, without the casual racism and other problematic ideas. I’ll be there this weekend with two kids dressed as frogs and orders to be more enthusiastic at the booze-free 10am silent disco. Be sure to wave if you’re in our tribe.
Just So takes place at Rode Hall in Cheshire this weekend, August 18-20. Limited tickets are still available here.
We’re Also Buzzing About…
Liverpool Literary Festival: Stuart Maconie, Jonathan Coe and Melanie Sykes are among the big names released this week by event organiser the University of Liverpool this week. But it’s worth delving further into the programme to discover some intriguing guests: Jenny Radcliffe, AKA The People Hacker, on being an ethical social engineer, con-artist and burglar for hire; Prof Dame Averil Mansfield on fulfilling her dream of becoming a surgeon at a time when just 2% of her colleagues were female; Neil Bartlett on bringing Virginia Woolf’s Orlando to the stage. The festival runs over the weekend of October 6-8, full details here.
Gosforth Civic Theatre: This arts venue, café and community hub in Newcastle, run by disability arts organisation Liberdade is reopening on Friday, August 25 after an eight-month renovation. Stand-up poet Kate Fox is the opening act with her show Bigger on the Inside, looking her unexpected adult diagnosis of autism and considering neurodiversity through the theme of Doctor Who. More details here.
Curry Mile - A Changing Neighbourhood: Photographers Michael Baker and Phil Portus have spent seven years documenting this stretch of Wilmslow Road in Manchester, named for its many restaurants run by the local Indian and Pakistani community. In recent years, the neighbourhood has evolved to due to immigration from the Middle East and East Africa. Their fascinating body of work is on display along with people’s memories of Curry Mile at Manchester Central Library until September 30. More details here.
Thank you for reading this week’s Storwd Honey. Get in touch on Twitter, in the comments or you by dropping me a line at tostoredhoney@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Have a great week,
Laura