Do Fest Experiment #1: A parklet

Do Fest 2019 was a 3 day festival of fun and street experiments on Dudley High Street co-created by a collective of local doers, creatives and social entrepreneurs convened by CoLab Dudley. The experiments were small scale actions, all connected to bigger ideas around changing what it feels like to live, work and play in Dudley town centre.

The experiments were intentionally designed to:

• Create spaces and reasons for interaction and connection between strangers.
• Change how local people view and treat shared public spaces.
• Nurture a culture of curiosity across the town.
• Be open to all.
• Make good use of the many and varied natural resources and talents which already exist around us.

By bringing together lots of experiments over 3 days across a few different locations, we also aimed to demonstrate possibilities which emerge through a diverse range of linked creative spaces, places and happenings across the town centre.

A parklet is a public place for people to stop, sit and chat while taking in the activities of the street

It’s a kind of miniature park which replaces individual parking bays on streets, temporarily or permanently transforming spaces for community use. The CoLab Dudley team were excited about this first small step in demonstrating that the High Street might be used in a way in which cars don’t automatically get priority.

It was a team effort; Gather Dudley CIC got permissions and undertook the risk assessments required by the council, Dudley CVS staff responded swiftly to call outs for resources, and CoLab Dudley team members went hunting for pallets. On the day, the ‘build’ took two people and very little time.

As soon as the parklet was created, curious passers by paused, smiled inquisitively, and asked what it was for. Others very naturally exchanged the time of day with those enjoying their coffee on the parklet, an indication of how readily people embrace opportunities to connect on the High Street. Some chose to sit on the parklet a while, and peacefully watched the world go by. The more talkative shared their memories of the town centre with strangers sharing the parklet with them. Acting as a catalyst for everyday human connections with strangers the simple but beautiful magic of parklets shined through the raindrops.

Here’s what one Do Fest Detectorist noted about the parklet:

The High Street felt busy full of traffic, interrupted by the parklet. A surprise, the unexpected, it grew in stature and design over the day, people responded with curiosity, avoidance, wonder, lots of attention from passers by “that’s ace!”, ‘that’s wierd!”.

I sat there for quite a while smiling, exchanging hellos with passers by. Had 3 in depth conversations, a radio presenter, a woman with her children — the only one who knew of gather[the coffee shop the parklet was outside of] — and older Caribbean man, an ex serviceman. I was left wondering “what next?” and “Dudley needs more of this!”

Over the next few days we’ll share outlines of more Do Fest experiments, followed by the collective learning and insights of Do Fest Detectorists. (Links will be added below). In the meantime, enjoy this lovely stop motion video of an hour in the life of this pop-up parklet made by Nick Booth.

Related posts (some yet to be published):

• Do Fest Experiment #2: Zero Waste conversations and making
• Do Fest Experiment #3: Doing in Dudley Market with Do Fest Friends

and more!