Events

Liberty Garden Party – Sunday

3rd Sep 2023 , 11:30am - 5:00pm - The Queen's Gardens, Croydon

Tracey is dressed in Lycra and lunging onto one knee with her elbow resting on her knee and her chin resting on her fist. There are other aerobic fanatics of all ages around her all wearing headbands, ankle warmers and wrist bands. They are all doing the same pose as Tracey and all look fierce.

This is a family friendly outdoor pop-up event.

Join us at The Queen’s Gardens, where throughout the afternoon performers will entertain you while you enjoy a drink from Dialogue Hub’s Mobile BSL Dialogue Cafe!

The following artists will be performing throughout the afternoon:

  • Club Soda
  • DISCO DISCO
  • Hijinx
  • Moxie Brawl
  • SLiDE
  • Tit for Tat

For performance times please check the Liberty Festival timetable  – https://qrco.de/beFLTb

What will you be experiencing?

You will be standing or sitting in Queen’s Gardens to watch an afternoon of pop-up performance. There won’t be a raised stage or theatre seating. Some of the performances will be stationary, some will move around the park. Some of the performers will interact with the public, and might ask you to join in.

About the performances

Dj Tony Cool mixing behind the decks. He has one hand on his headphones. He is wearing a red, white and black check shirt.

Club Soda – Silent Disco. Club Soda’s Soda Crew Djs are bringing bangers to Liberty Festival. The crew (made up of DJs with learning disabilities) are used to #PartyingInPlainSight at Boxpark in Club Soda’s longstanding inclusive club nights. Normally they’re making lots of noise, so we thought it was time to switch it up a bit. Let’s crank the volume down, grab your headphones and join them for their first ever silent disco…

Two performers are on stage, they both wear sparkly hats and bow ties, one green, one gold. One appears to be showing the other and imaginary scroll. Behind them musicians play and a giant screen says DISCO DISCO in pink and purple letters.

DISCO DISCO – What’s in the bag? Please ensure you take all of your luggage with you. Any unaccompanied luggage will be discarded… unless DISCO DISCO is around. In which case, please leave all items unattended for frivolous, dynamic and joyful celebrations.

Four people dressed as unicorns standing on two legs. They look grumpy and have one of their hooves raised on a boombox

Hijinx Grumpy Unicorns. Guess what?! Turns out unicorns are REAL! They’re more beautiful than we imagined. They are, however, grumpier than we imagined. They’ve had it up to the tip of their horns with people thinking they’re ‘cute’ or ‘magic’. They just want to be taken seriously, or better yet, left alone.

Tracey is dressed in Lycra and lunging onto one knee with her elbow resting on her knee and her chin resting on her fist. There are other aerobic fanatics of all ages around her all wearing headbands, ankle warmers and wrist bands. They are all doing the same pose as Tracey and all look fierce.

Moxie Brawl Tracey Let’s Get Physical! Tracey is your average Olivia Newton-John loving, baked beans obsessed, working mens club aerobics instructor from Dagenham, East London. Get ready for some mind boggling, drink inspired, beige food incorporated chair based exercises. It’s time to stretch those bodies and get ready for your summer swimming togs. Let’s get physical!

SLiDE – <Insert title here> dancers and musicians will create short improvised performances. Watch us as we move around the gardens. We invite you to give titles to this ever-evolving work of art. We will use your title to inspire the next improvisation. And so on…

Four performers wearing brightly coloured shorts and glasses. One performer stands at the side, holding a book. One performer is holding two other performers. They are gripping on with their arms and legs and have created a creature with their bodies! Their hands have made claws and their faces are snarling. A filled bookshelf is in the background.

Tit for Tat Books! Bound together in fiasco and mayhem, four bedraggled book enthusiasts embark on a quest between the margins; sharing their maniacal love for stories whilst altering their own epilogues.

About the activities

Dialogue Hub Mobile BSL Dialogue Cafe. Dialogue Cafe is the first British Sign Language (BSL) cafe in the UK. We employ Deaf and Hard of Hearing baristas so customers have to sign their orders in BSL to communicate to the staff. There is relevant signage for those to use to sign their order. Dialogue Cafe aims to address some of the socio-emotional issues those in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community face, and the lack of necessary infrastructure to assist those in the community to interact with everyday society. Customers and baristas have genuine interactions and discussion that help guests develop a greater understanding and awareness of the community and BSL.

Access information

Easy Read information for the Mobile BSL Dialogue Cafe – https://qrco.de/beH6bW

Easy Read information for Club Soda’s Silent Disco – https://qrco.de/beH6jl

Easy Read information for ‘Grumpy Unicorns’ by Hijinx – https://qrco.de/beH6vI

Easy Read information for ‘<Insert title here>’ by SLiDE – https://qrco.de/beH704

The Queen’s Gardens has step-free access throughout the areas that will be used as performance spaces. There are smooth, concrete paths connecting these areas of the park. There are some areas of the path with slight incline/declines.

Either side of these paths are small grassy areas and benches

All performances will be relaxed, meaning you can move around, make noise and tic as you need

Performances will also include:

  • BSL interpreters
  • Some performances will include integrated audio description
  • Integrated audio description
  • Easy-read information packs

Please note: some access resources such as; easy read information and pre-recorded audio description will be available across the festival via QR codes. We recommend bringing your smartphone and a pair of earphones if you would like to access these resources.

Content warning

Books! by Tit for Tat contains fire-juggling. This is carried out with full safety precautions in place.

About the artists

Club Soda are a disability led organisation in Croydon providing opportunities for people with learning disabilities in music and media. Through inclusive club nights, live music events and musician mentorship, the project pushes to break boundaries in the music industry and increase representation of learning disabled artists. Soda Crew are their resident DJs who soundtrack Club Soda’s longstanding inclusive club night, currently at Boxpark.

DISCO DISCO is a theatre company of learning disabled and autistic adults, run by Drunken Chorus. The group meet weekly in Croydon to devise their own performances, inspired by the world around them, in a relaxed and inclusive environment

Hijinx is one of Europe’s leading inclusive theatre companies, creating outstanding performances with learning disabled and/or autistic artists on stage and on screen, for Wales and for the world. The heart of our work is our learning disabled and/or autistic artists, who constantly challenge perceptions of what theatre and film can be and how they should be made. Performances that change the way that we perceive the world are the performances that remain with us forever. This is what we aspire to make. Our work is bold, vibrant, anarchic and honest because our artists are bold, vibrant, anarchic and honest.

Moxie Brawl is a spicy inclusive dance theatre company who make work that your mum would love. Their award winning performances have been described as ‘gloriously shambolic‘, ‘wholly absorbing’, ‘endearingly witty’ and ‘definitely the most fun you’ll have at a dance show’. Moxie Brawl creates work for the outdoors, indoors and places where dance shouldn’t be. Moxie Brawl is led by artist Sarah Blanc and producer Michael Kitchin.

SLiDE is a community of dancers, musicians and creatives based in Croydon of varying ages, backgrounds and differently-abled. SLiDE makes experimental performance pieces using improvised and contemporary movement. The work is presented in a relaxed format, with carefully considered ways for the audience to engage and interact with the work. SLiDE has shown work at Turner Contemporary, Stanley Arts, Turf Projects, Southbank Centre and The Place. SLiDE has been commissioned by Croydonites, Drunken Chorus, The Place/London Contemporary Dance School, St.Christopher’s Hospice and many others

Tit for Tat is an unusual juggling company that believes in celebrating the ordinary. We take everyday objects, objectives and scenes, and we explore every nook and cranny until we make them extra-ordinary. We believe in finding the most exciting and, more often than not, the most difficult way of getting from A to B. Even when undertaking simple tasks such as making a cup of tea, painting a wall, or changing a lightbulb. Our performances bring a sense of raucous, all-inclusive community fun to public spaces – connecting with our audiences in a shared celebration of the absurd.

Show credits

Hijinx

  • Ellen Groves – Performer, Devisor, Co-Director & Concept Originator
  • Fiona Wilson – Performer & Devisor
  • George Fuller Orange – Performer & Devisor
  • Jonathan Pugh – Performer & Devisor
  • Ben Pettitt-Wade – Co-Director
  • Jacqui Onions – Choreographer
  • Susie Glatt – Costume Designer & Maker
  • Tom Ayres – Production Manager
  • Ellis Wrightbrook – Producer
  • Holly Stoppit – Clowning Facilitator (R&D)

Moxie Brawl

  • Tracey first started working at The Oasis Social Club with Mavis Davis, supported by Arts Admin.

SLiDE

  • Dancers: Aaron Baksh, Kirstie Cooper, Natasha Cox, Takeshi Matsumoto
  • Musician: Devaki Thomas
  • Creative support and direction: Gemma Coldicott

Tit for Tat

Performers

  • Ryan Murphy
  • Maia Ayling
  • Max Gabarre-Grindrod
  • Charles Brockbank

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