East Greenwich Fayre
13 July 2024 - The Inaugural East Greenwich Fayre
The aim of the project was to bring the communities in East Greenwich together. Rothbury Hall (the home of EEA) is nestled between the Caletock Estate, Victorian houses that are homes to many long-standing residents and new build modern flats that have been developed along the River Thames. The residents tend to stay in the areas that they live and work in with little movement or opportunities for them to come together.
The aim of our event was to be able to showcase what East Greenwich has to offer, by working with residents, community groups and businesses to bring people from all areas of East Greenwich to mix and celebrate the start of summer together.
East Greenwich Fayre stretched over much of the local area with workshops on the Caletock Estate and at Christchurch Primary School Community Garden. It featured a parade with our beloved Farrah the Fox mechanical puppet and South London Samba, starting at the estate, weaving through the streets to the river before finishing at Mauritius Road for a street party - more workshops, stalls, a makers market and a performance stage for singing, dancing and a pet show! We estimate 1500 people took part by joining us to process, watch the parade as it passed by or joining the activities. So lots of eyes on East Greenwich!
We delivered workshops for local school children to create carnival costumes that they could wear on the parade and get them excited in the run up to Fayre. We worked with a class at St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School and delivered them an extra kit of materials so they could work with another class of 30 children. We also worked with another class of 30 at St. Mary Magdalene's Primary School.
We think it's important where possible to repurpose, recycle and re-use any materials that are used in workshops. All the costume elements were created by upcycling materials that would have otherwise been sent to landfill.
We were lucky enough to have some incredible performances on the day from Y7 students at St Mary Magdalene Secondary School who delighted our audience with dance and a gospel choir performance. They were incredible and we can’t wait to work with these local schools and more next year!
Local businesses in East Greenwich very kindly offered up dontations which were used as prizes in the pet show and raffle for the lucky locals.
We also had 10 stalls and an Ice Cream Van!
Street Art workshop
EEA commissioned Street Artist Hello Murals to deliver a Street Art workshop in the lead up to The East Greenwich Fayre. Out of the consultation process it was highlighted that there is a lack of provision for teenagers in the area. The workshop was led by two talented street artists that are based in Kent who regularly run workshops with young people.
Many residents stopped to have a chat about the upcoming event and fed back around the delight that they could see young people being creative and brightening up their street and area. One parents feedback was “My daughter has now found a new passion. She has always wanted to try street art, but there is nowhere for her locally to try it. Thank you for the great session, this will be a day that she will always remember.”
Community Impact
14 workshops
291 attendees at workshops
4800 audience
98 local performers
18 Businesses & community groups
22 EEA staff and family involved
16 local business sponsors
11 local market stalls
"Dear EEA,
Congratulations! You did us proud yesterday. Despite the poor weather, you brightened up East Greenwich with our very own parade and Fayre. I followed most events for about 2.5 hours and everywhere I saw smiling faces, happy children and colour and sound. More power to your elbows - may this be the first of many community events that the lovely vixen leads us on. You must all be physically and emotionally exhausted, but please be aware that it was well worth all the planning and worrying and very hard work!
We all love it!
God Bless you all"
Audience Survey results
Travel – 58% came by foot, 25% on a bus, 8% by bike
Marketing – 50% of people saw a flyer, 16% saw in a local paper, 8% word of mouth
Why did they come? - 50% for entertainment, 33% to be part of the community
East Greenwich image – 100% Agreed or strongly agreed that the event was good for the image of East Greenwich.
Proud of area – 84% Agreed or Strongly agreed that the Fayre made them proud of East Greenwich.
