This Sunday, Regent’s Park is playing host to the Camden Green Fair. A massive celebration of Londons independent environmental projects, it takes the form of an old fashioned village fete with stalls, games, musical performances and activities for all the family. We sat down with volunteer marketing manager Ro Greene to find out more.

So how did the Camden Green Fair come about?

The Green Fair was started eighteen years ago in a Camden Town archway by some really enthusiastic local people who just wanted to celebrate being green in London. It began with only about two hundred people, but this year we expect over twenty five thousand people to attend! It’s great that what started as a local community gathering has now become a London-wide event, as it shows how committed Londoners are to the environment and their city.

How did you personally get involved with the fair?

When I left university I really wanted to get a job that helped conserve the environment, as it’s a cause I think is incredibly important, so when I found out I could do this and support my local community in North London at the same time, I went for it!

What sort of events will be happening at the fair?

Well I’m looking forward to the burlesque Morris Dancing from the Belles of London and already have my eye on a few things in the Ethical Fashion area, but the village games looks to be a highlight: egg and spoon races, a tug of war, three legged races and a good spot of welly wangling will be going down.

Welly Wangling?

Yes, where you see how far you can throw a Wellington boot! It appears to be a unique pastime of the country-dwelling Brit; we’ve been having practise runs in the office and I’ve discovered I may have a hidden talent! All the games will have prizes and they’ll be handed out by Miss Earth, England’s very own environmental beauty queen.

Sounds like fun! So as you clearly care deeply about environmental issues, what do you think the most pressing eco problems facing Londoners today are?

I think we really need to reduce our transport emissions. The cycle hire scheme started by the Mayor is a great start, but London’s roads need to be made safer if more people are going to make cycling a part of their life, especially commuters.

At the Camden Green Fair, as well as the games and stalls, we will be running talks on loads of green stuff that every Londoner can be part of, from cycling to recycling to urban bee-keeping.

Do you take care to shop responsibly?

Of course! I like to visit independent local shops, as they are such a vital part of any community. I’m lucky, because in Crouch End, where I live, we have loads of great independent shops still, such as the Haelan Centre, a couple of great fruit and vegetable places that have been competing over the price of carrots for donkeys years and a surprising amount of clothes boutiques.

For more details of the Camden Green Fair, check out the video below.

Photo courtesy of Ro Greene used under a Creative Commons License

As I type this 24 performers are creating human sculpture based on the lives of 24 new yorkers living downtown.  Meanwhile, a man is backstage reviewing his lines before he takes stage at The Public Theater to deliver a one-man show that recounts the Apollo 11 moon landing.  Later in the evening, the stage will transform into an ode to the American Dance Legand, Martha Graham, with a multi-media tribute, using materials from her actual choreography, past documentaries and actual notes from her personal journals.

Quite the cultural buffet to say the least.  In its 6th year, the Under The Radar Festival has returned and transformed the citie’s theaters into a hotbed of new-found theater from around the world.  Going on through January 17th, see the festival’s sites for scheduling, performance synopsis and location information.  While its cold outside, why not undergo some cultural stimulus?

photo courtesy of Creative Commons License

Just following on from Harper’s post below, I thought I would post DJ Scotch Egg’s most excellent Tetris/Bach composition, to give you a taster of what to expect at Blip Fest.

I predict you will now be either jumping around the room in excitement or sitting in the corner flinching involuntarily.

Starting today is a festival I look forward to every year. Perhaps because there are memories involved. I can still remember myself wide-eyed and bushy tailed, wandering the cold streets of chelsea at night, solo, looking for an art opening to crash, or two or three. Instead of art, the gods of old school nintendo and game boys swooped in and lead me into a gallery-turned-discotheque. The DJs were not spinning records however.  Instead, music was all made using former video gaming devices, like the Commodore 64 and Amiga, the Atari ST and 2600 and Game Boys.  Topping it off, artists created hypnotic visuals matching the music, employing similar devices and experimentation.

If you have no plans yet. GO! If you already have plans, cancel.  The Blip Festival lasts through the weekend.  It is for the geeky gamer, the disco raver and everything in between.  ALL INFO HERE.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons License

In response to Anya’s latest blog on an “intriguing and unusual exhibition to visit” in London, New York has some “art in odd places” to visit this weekend too. Exploring the “odd, ordinary and ingenious in the spectacle of daily life,” the annual Art in Odd Places festival aims to expand, question and provoke the way we communicate in public space. Simply put, it forces us to question the role art plays in public.

The festival is a must. It is free. Most exciting is how it transforms the Lower East Side and Alphabet city for the weekend, turning store shop windows into curious displays, public gardens into theatrical stagings, and forcing walker-bys to closely examine everything – from cracks in the sidewalks to building cornices. The Art in Odd Places festival, if nothing else, forces us to take nothing in this city for granted, forcing us to peel our eyes a bit more than usual by highlighting the unusual.

Photos Courtesy of DannyBirchall and Hragv with Creative Commons License