Feature: Pop Up Festival of Stories on July 9 and 10
Published: 7 July, 2011
by GERALDINE BRENNAN
PUT on your wrap rascal and your faring crackers, stick your bird’s-eye fogle under your shappo and get yourself down to Coram’s Fields in Bloomsbury this weekend.
If you miss out on this free family festival you’ll feel like a pilgarlick, a gawk, a fustilugs or a slubberdegullion.
Translation from “Ma” Catherine Johnson, whose 18th-century den of rascals is among the attractions of the Pop Up Festival of Stories this weekend: “Put on your red cloak and good trousers, stick your blue spotted hanky under your hat... or you’ll feel like four different kinds of idiot.”
Catherine is one of the top children’s authors who has helped to programme the Festival of Stories, which is the culmination of two months of author events at eight schools in the King’s Cross area.
Catherine’s novel, A Nest of Vipers, about an 18th-century pickpocket gang with a Robin Hood mission, is set a stone’s throw from the festival site. On Saturday her audience will try 18th-century hats and wigs and experiment with insults like those above before they create their own tales of scams and tricksters, with illustrators from the Ministry of Stories.
“There will be a rolling programme of old-fashioned storytelling,” says Catherine. “Stories about tricksters are eternally popular.
“This will be like Hustle in 18th-century costume.”
Catherine says she is looking forward to meeting new readers who might not make it to fee-paying literary festivals, and those children who perhaps “don’t get taken to the theatre or have lots of books at home.”
In the marquee next door, Rastamouse creators Michael De Souza and Genevieve Webster will be recruiting a crew for the Mouseland Carnival parade, and younger children can meet Spot and the Moomins.
On Sunday, former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen hosts a programme including fellow poet Valerie Bloom and finishes the weekend with his Homemade Orchestra. There are several sessions to choose from, starting at 11am on both days (check the programme for start times).
Older children and teens can see top performance poets, rappers and DJs from the Poetry Society’s SLAMbassadors UK movement for 12 to 18-year-olds, who will be filling the Coram’s Fields poetry arena and a satellite stage in the nearby Brunswick Centre.
Acts on Saturday include Trunh, who SLAMbassadors artistic director Joelle Taylor describes as “a rising star: the best young female beatbox artist around”. Chris Preddie (Cashman), who fuses rap and performance poetry, will also be performing.
On Sunday, alongside more SLAMbassadors acts, Joelle will be running a performance skills and rap workshop from 12 noon with a showcase to finish.
“SLAMbassadors events turn into family events because the performers’ parents and younger siblings get drawn in,” says Joelle. “Pop Up is a natural place for us.
“It’s a unique and dynamic festival which encourages a new generation to write and create stories alongside their families.”
• Pop Up Festival of Stories takes place on Saturday and Sunday, July 9 and 10, at Coram’s Fields, Bloomsbury.
All events are free and on a first come, first served basis, except a film programme in the Renoir Cinema: films cost £3 for children and £1 for adults.
Full programme on www.pop-up.org.uk