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A blooming good day out in London

By Caroline King - Posted in : Art, Classes & Workshops, Dance, Exhibition, Fair, Festival, Food & Drink, Music, Review, Walks

The Mary Ward Centre's art exhibition at Bloomsbury Festival

Part of the cultural art exhibition from the Mary Ward Centre at the festival

When: 21st – 23rd October 2011

Where: Various locations around Bloomsbury, London

£: Free

What was it?

The Bloomsbury Festival is an annual free event that takes place around Bloomsbury in London. There were plenty of different activities taking place throughout the weekend including workshops, a craft market, world music from the SOAS stage, displays of art works, walks, talks and dance performances.

I headed down to Russell Square on the Sunday for one of the walks, The Heart of Bloomsbury, a ramble around the area learning about the educational institutions.  Our guide, a graduate student, was enthusiastic if at times hard to hear.  Starting with the early history of the area she lead us from Russell Square around the various buildings giving us a bit of history about each.  These buildings included SOAS, the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Senate House and the Foundling Museum.

We ended at Goodenough College where we were able to peek into the lawned area where students were busy relaxing over a game of croquet.  Not a sight you see every day.

After the walk I headed back to Russell Square to have a look at some of the other things that were happening.  There was certainly plenty going on including some random dance performances and The Choir with No Name attempting tongue-twisters as part of their warm-up.  In festival tradition there was music, various hot food stalls, a beer tent and people chilling out.  The weather even seemed to be behaving itself for once.

If you didn’t go along this year then below are some more examples of what you missed out on…

Wellcome Charm Tree curated by Elaine Duigenan with young children from Bloomsbury

The Wellcome Charm Tree, a glittering art installation

The Den in Russell Square at Bloomsbury Festival

The Den in Russell Square designed by Gina Rose Lee and Harriet Wilcox

Dance Around the Place, Russell Square at Bloomsbury Festival

Young dancers perform in Russell Square

Faber Academy and Urban Brew's Poetry Under the Arbour at Bloomsbury Festival

People surround themselves with words under the Poetry Arbour

Comments

  1. By Urban Brew Design Collective

    Poets’ Path: Poetry Under the Arbour was commissioned by Faber Academy for the Bloomsbury Festival 2011. A competition is running for the best poems constructed during the event to be posted onto the Faber Academy Facebook Page. search #underthearbour and #bloomsburyfest for tweets and images about the event. @urbanbrewdesign @faberacademy