Do Fest Experiment #3: Doing in Dudley Market with Do Fest Friends
Do Fest 2019 was very much our first foray out into some of Dudley’s public spaces, extending invitations to get involved in hands-on doing in places usually associated with consumption rather than making. We wanted to meet people we wouldn’t usually, and decided to take over a corner of Dudley Market to create Do Fest’s Discovery Zone; a place where people could get involved in simple, drop-in making and doing activities, and find out about Do Fest.
We knew our team wasn’t big enough to host doing across multiple sites, so we put a call out to doers, colleagues and Fellow Travellers. We let them know how excited we were that we’d have a Do Fest HQ in the heart of Dudley’s busy marketplace. We assured them that the market is all undercover (though with no effective barriers to and, we discovered!), and that we’d have two stalls and beautiful festival programmes to give to people. We said we were seeking Do Fest Friends who would be happy to chat to people on the market and invite some hands-on doing.
Do Fest Friends came from projects and organisations in Dudley, Coseley, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Stirchley and Birmingham. An array of offers were made which filled the time slots available. The low-fi, easy to take part doing activities were:
- Making pom poms for lonelines
- Making bird feeders
- Dudley Rocks
- Fun with Sign Language
- Family zine making
- See like an architect
The very act of setting up the Do Fest stall led to conversation, curiosity and potential connections. Then our Do Fest Friends arrived, bringing fresh waves of energy, colour, warmth and fun.
One of our Do Fest Friends from Wolverhampton, Sam Axtell, had been taking part in Make Films with Your Smartphone sessions prior to and during Do Fest, and put her new skills to the test in the Do Fest Discovery Zone on the market, producing and sharing these two wonderful short videos about the doing activities as they happened.
Dudley Rocks
Making bird feeders
Taking the time to connect Do Fest Friends in a way they could connect easily (through a WhatsApp chat group) helped to spread inspiration and connect people across the 3 days of Do Fest even though most were only around for one day each.
In response to photos of the parklet build being shared in the Do Fest Friends WhatsApp chat, a doer from Birmingham asked:
LOVE this (did you guys get permission to do this — only asking because tempted to do one locally)
A Do Fest Friend and Fellow Traveller said:
I feel energised from afar! My hope is that we can continue and grow what is becoming a many tendriculed (is that even a word) living movement spreading across the Black Country, West Midlands, UK and Internationally!! A plea for even more doing together. Fellow Travellers in action! 😀
A simple “thanks for inviting me” in the chat reaffirmed the importance of opening up our work for others to take a lead in as many ways as possible.
At the end of each day Do Fest Friends were sharing thanks, photos and links to their social media posts:
Thank you guys for a super morning , hope the rest of the day works well and tomorrow too.
Really enjoyed today looking forward to tomorrow.
Heartfelt thanks from the Cov crew for the wonderful welcome and opportunity to immerse ourselves in #dofest
We are big fans x xI was so animated by the wonderful people, warm connections, opening to new possibilities that the WVSC offices could barely cope with me this afternoon! Thank you CoLab Dudley! Hope day three is great x
Thank you everyone for such an enjoyable and insightful mapping picnic yesterday!
And just as our Fellow Travellers have inspired us, and some of our Do Fest activities, so the ripples spread back the other way:
We’ve got more Do Fest experiments to tell you about over the next few days, including more about projects and activities which Do Fest friends hosted in other spaces. After that we’ll share the observations, insights and learning gained by bringing doing out into public places and spaces such as Dudley Market.
