Hillaballoo

Without too much effort so far, we already seem to have plenty going on for Hillaballoo (July 19th 2008):

The Young Friends of the Park are organising park conservation activities, in the lower park. That’s your chance to get into the pond.

The Young Friends are also organising art activities, aiming to get more children and young people involved in park activities.

The Telegraph Hill Craft Fair will be taking place that day.

There will be a film night in the Centre that evening.

Friends of the Livesey Museum for Children will be doing creative activities, raising awareness of the campaign to reopen the Museum.

The Amazing Camera Obscura is back again by popular demand.

The Telegraph Hill Society will have a stall, with some extra activities.

There will also be some wandering joke collectors and local artists doing some ’stuff’. 

Put the date in your diary and start planning your summery outfits and contents of your picnic hamper.

It’s been pointed out correctly that 2009 is actually year of the telescope, or the International Year of Astronomy. http://www.iau.org/iau0702.486.0.html

Unfortunately, if you Google ‘year of the telescope’, the previous post in this website comes to the very top. At least it shows that doing a blog helps get publicity for local community projects, but it also shows how the internet can spread falsities as well as knowledge. I shouldn’t have got that wrong. It was lazy of me.

2008 is the Year of the Telescope, celebrating Galileo’s inspired use of the telescope and all that came afterwards, leading to navigation of the seas and the stars. It would be great to see some activities in Hillaballoo that celebrate this occasion.  

The Lewisham Localities Fund has agreed to give some money to the community to organise another summer event in 2008. This will be on July 19th, the first day of the school holidays. The weather will be sunny. It will. Some of the activities will be responding to the community survey. The camera obscura was so popular that we’ve already booked this. More news to follow.

I’ve just been contacted by Lewisham council to warn me that I should be liable for a fine of £75 per poster for all the Hillaballoo posters we put on trees. That could come to about £7500. The reason we put up so many posters? Because someone kept ripping them down. I thought it was mystifyingly antisocial behaviour. It turns out that that someone was the council, acting on complaints. It’s a shame that nobody (the council or the complainers) thought to contact us via the details on the poster so that we could start being law abiding. The law is the Clean Neighbourhoods Act, which is news to me, even though I’m a pretty avid news reader. I wonder how many other charities and community groups are being threatened with fines out of ignorance? Apparently, the lawful option is to flyer every house. But to my mind it is a far less acceptable practice, because it wastes far more paper, and puts litter into people’s houses. Anyway, I’m getting away with a caution. And the positive outcome is that Lewisham will help us have a community noticeboard so that we don’t have to deface the poor trees anymore.  

One of the activities on Hillaballoo day was this survey, which will inform the possible creation of a local time bank (Telegraph Time). If you didn’t get a chance to do it then, you can do it online here:

http://ourhillsurvey.com/

Well, it wasn’t quite the picnic we were expecting. Several planned activities didn’t happen because of the rain. However, it was really enjoyable and lots of people turned up. The camera obscura was a hit. For photos see the link to Flickr on the right. Upload your own too.  

Please put your comments on this site. Ideas for future events are welcome.  

Here is the final programme for Hillaballoo. You can download it from this link http://www.box.net/shared/kfvt8bk61o

We were a bit worried about the weather earlier, but it looks as if it should be just a bit cloudy, perhaps a bit of a shower in the afternoon, but nothing to put us off!

Please bring donations of art materials (especially card, heavy paper, thick felt pens) - for the art tent.

Useful items to bring include picnic tables, chairs, big umbrellas or tents, plastic sheeting, and a recycling bin or two.

If you are a musician/group and feel confident to do a spot without amplification, you can pitch in following the performance by Nouvelle Croix in mid-afternoon.   

You can help support art activities, such as drawings of clouds and shadows, and the skyline, and portraits of dogs & people.

The event is unfunded, but is costing some money, so there will be a donations box.

Please upload any photos to the Flickr group ‘Telegraph Hill Visions’.

A cloud-spotting or shadow-catching game? A strawberry stall? A giant group poem about the view? A photography challenge? Paint the view? Dress up as the invisible man? Wear a London Eye hat? Levitation? Spinning plates? A seaside-style your-face-in-the-hole portrait? A giant skipping rope? Teach people to do cartwheels? Paint your face? Dress a tree trunk? Let us know…