PAST – Mulled Wine + Snowflakes
THIS IS THE ARCHIVE PAGE FOR THE FIRST MAYHEM IN THE MARKET EVENT – MULLED WINE & SNOWFLAKES – WHICH TOOK PLACE IN NOVEMBER 2011…
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Here’s the programme for MULLED WINE + SNOWFLAKES, the first event in the MAYHEM IN THE MARKET series, Friday 25th November 2011…
Question your Teaspoons present
MULLED WINE + SNOWFLAKES
Part of the MAYHEM IN THE MARKET series in Goole Victorian Market Hall
FREE events throughout the evening from 6.45pm (after Christmas lights switch on)
Friday 25th November 2011
Question your Teaspoons are now putting the finishing touches to an ambitious and unique project designed to challenge preconceptions of Goole Victorian Market Hall. The series of events, entitled MAYHEM IN THE MARKET, will begin with a festive edition on 25th November, straight after the town’s christmas lights switch-on. The company have commissioned 8 artists from all over the UK, including an international company of performers from Italy, Korea and the UK. The artists will present work that engages directly with the building; work that might usually be seen in theatres, comedy venues and galleries; work that challenges and confounds expectations of what a market hall should be.
We’ve selected a wide range of playful and unique work, with the intention of challenging all of our views of what this building can and should be. Traditionally a market place was the lifeblood of any community, not just for trading but for entertainment, for gossip, for meeting friends. We’re trying to inject that energy and identity back into Goole Market – trying to re-establish the building as a place where anything can happen.
We can now reveal the official line-up for the event, which is supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England funding, as well as receiving a grant from Goole Town Council, and support from Junction and Goole Renaissance. The night will feature a christmas elf on trapeze, dancing christmas trees, hula-hooping, red wine, hand massages, hot water bottles, conversations with strangers, a Patrick Swayze stalker, christmas songs, mince pies and lots of fairy lights.
Some of the artists, such as Six Lips Theatre (York), Nicola Parkin (North East) and The SHRUG Ladies (Nottingham), will make use of the unoccupied stalls, creating installations and durational performances that explore ideas, memories and stories about the market. James Bartley from Derby is creating a duet dance piece, which will interact with the architecture of the building, and Grania Pickard will be dangling from the roof dressed as an elf!!
Later events in the evening, from around 8.30pm, have been co-curated by Drunken Chorus (creators of Goole’s occasional alternative cabaret evening – Drunken Nights). These will include Phantasmagoria – an international company of performers based in London, who will be performing bite-size extracts from their cabaret-esque theatre show. Also in the line up is ANIKÓ TÓTH (Manchester), who will be joined by guitarists Steve Kilpatrick and Alan E. Williams, to play some jazzy christmas songs. Jessica Lee (Manchester) will be performing The Swayze Stall – a comedy piece about stalking, and Rebecca Fuller (London) will be showing her short performance piece What I Know About Wine So Far. Sh!T Theatre (London) will also be making an appearance with their unique brand of comedy songs and sketches.
In addition to the performances there will also be festive music and a special christmas bar run by The Lowther Hotel, serving mulled wine and winter cocktails. The usual market stalls will be opening late so that visitors to the event can see what’s on offer, and so that traders can join together in a fun and festive celebration of the building and the town.
Right now, people only go into the market if there is something specific that they need in there. What this project is giving the market is an identity; reputation as a destination; an exciting place that people will want to visit year round, regardless of whether they need to make a purchase or not. In the long run, we hope this will increase visitors to the market, and give a real boost to trade.
The event is free, thanks to the project’s supporting partners, and no booking is required. However, we are expecting a strong turn out and entry will be limited – so there may be times when the building is full and the door staff will be asking visitors to wait for others to leave. The event will run from 6.45pm until approximately 10.30pm, and audiences can come and go as they please during that time.
A full schedule will be available in the week leading up to the event, and this will be available to pick up from Junction’s box office, on our Facebook event page (coming soon) or as a PDF download here on the website. For further information and enquiries please contact Junction’s Box Office on 01405 763652.
The MAYHEM IN THE MARKET series is produced by Question your Teaspoons, and is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England funding, as well as Goole Town Council, Junction, The Lowther Hotel, Goole Renaissance, Goole Victorian Market and PRS for Music.
I went to the event at the Goole Market on 25th November 2011, but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it.
The lights were being switched on at the front of the market, whilst a group were singing Carols at the back. We went to see them after the lights and they finished.
The gate was shut at the side, people couldn’t get in very easily to attend the event in the market.
There didn’t seem alot of atmosphere in the Market Hall, alot of waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately when the entertainment began I didn’t enjoy any of it.
I like to support local events and the idea of trying to bring the Goole Market alive was very good, but the entertainment was very poor. I would have preferred to see local talent, which I know is very good.
Thank you.
Jill
Hi Jill,
Thank you for your feedback. Sheena and I are early career producers and this is the first event of this kind that we’ve ever organised, so it’s vital that we gather responses from audiences and local people like yourself. It’s a very steep learning curve for us and we really hope that you’ll continue to support the project, and hopefully enjoy the next event.
I’m sorry you missed School of Rock. I believe the lights may have gone on slightly later than anticipated and so this may have led to an overlap between the two events. In addition the gates were locked for two reasons: firstly, for security – it did not seem appropriate to have the bar open directly on to the street; and, secondly, to increase the flow of people through the market, which was one of our primary aims for the event. We’re sorry if this caused you some problems and we will reassess this issue in our evaluation process.
You also mention that you would have preferred to have seen local talent. However, we believe there is already a strong provision for local talent platforms in the town. This project was intended to bring in artists from around the UK and abroad, to bring contemporary work that might not normally be found in Goole. We’ve had a full range of responses to this work – some loved it and some hated it, and all those inbetween. The work has sparked healthy debate amongst audiences about what art is or should be, and we hope it has encouraged people to question the market building too.
Thank you once again for your constructive comments. We can assure you they will be used carefully in the planning of future events and projects.
All the best.
Chris Williams
Joint Director
Question your Teaspoons
Hi you two!
Here’s a few of my ideas! Have all the acts outside so the audience don’t have to do any work, the atmosphere was better outside. I did enjoy all the acts but some were a bit too motivated by politics and I heard a few people say it was too ‘arty’. Personally, it wasn’t too arty for me but I can see how some might think so. Consider the weather!!! It was cold, so keep the acts coming, but the breaks would be fine if the weather was warmer!!! I did enjoy though – a few drinks and live entertainment – no better night out
Hi Ian,
Thanks so much for your comments. As always, feedback is incredibly valuable to us.
These are all useful comments and we’re exploring these right now as we plan for the next event.
Do keep an eye out for announcements about the next event.
Best.
Chris
I would agree that the entertainment did not live up to expectations. As far as the bar being open to the street, it was only one entrance that was closed but that closure did cause major problems, confusion and minor panic for people wishing to get in and out of the venue-yes there are other platforms for local talent, and some were included, but it would have been much better to support local talent-it was a local market you were trying to promote, some hot refreshment providers closed early. There was another aspect of having one entrance closed, in the event of an incident many local people would have tried to get out and find found locked gates–we should have learnt from the lessons of Hillsborough, especially in the instance where you have alcohol inside the venue
Thanks for your comments. All very useful to us and we will seriously consider them all. The next event is set to take a different format to the last one, and we’ll be taking into account the issues encountered with the first one (including the gated entrance!).
Best.
Chris
I’m really sorry i missed this. I will try and coincide a visit to see family and attend the event next year. I can’t wait and the pics of the event are wonderful! What an amazing job you have done, congratulations to all those involved.
Thanks for the kind words. The project is very much in its early stages – we’re new to producing site-based events on this scale, so we’re experimenting with what works and what doesn’t. Already very excited about how we will be moving forwards towards the next event in February. Hope to see you there.
Best.
Chris
FINALLY getting round to leaving some feedback on this! I really enjoyed the night – I travelled over from York especially for it and would definitely do so again in future years. The atmosphere was really nice, the acts were nicely varied and interesting, and the bar did some amazing drinks!
I do think that there are things you could improve for future years though. After reading the above comments, maybe it would be a good idea to have extra volunteers outside to show people the way in (if you’re not from Goole, it might be confusing being able to see everything through the gates but having them locked. Maybe if you get more funding you could open those gates and have door staff there to keep a safe environment? If nothing else, maybe stick some posters up with directions round to the main door, or get some sidewalk chalk and draw some big arrows or a colourful trail to follow round to the door?
Another suggestion (and again it’s kind of dependent on you being able to get more funding, I’m assuming), would be to have stuff happening on the stage all the time, as well as inside the market – I think once the first lot of stuff on the stage ended, a few people drifted away and missed the end of the event because they didn’t know there was more happening elsewhere in the market. Or maybe you could have a compere with a megaphone to round people up and direct them to the next act – Chris made a valiant effort but I think he struggled to be heard a bit.
Maybe a BBQ or stalls selling hot food right up until the end would be a good idea too. Maybe roast chestnuts or something festive too?
Keep up the good work – do one in the summer too!
Thank you for the feedback Adam. All very useful and we’re very pleased that you enjoyed the even as a whole.
Hope to see you on February 18th!