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| From Paradise Gardens Festival |
This was the first event (for me) in what promises to be a veritable cultural feast that will be offered to Londoners and visitors to the capital over the next few weeks as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Paradise Gardens is rather a misnomer for the site on which this festival was held. It looks more like a disused gravel pit, which perhaps it was. The best bit IMHO was the jugs of cocktails served up be the overworked bar staff. The musical line-up was not that inspiring, possibly being aimed at a somewhat younger and more urban crowd than us oldies. We watched a rather formulaic performance by Dreadzone, who I had liked previously in the context of a chilled out Rhythm Festival. Here they really only seemed to be going though the motions, with most of their sound coming from a backing track. The band I would really have liked to see, Alabama Three, was on the Sunday line-up, so I never got to see them.
Our main reason for coming on the Saturday was to see the Silo D firework display. This was a mixed media show to commemorate the death of 73 workers that resulted from an explosion of a government TNT factory in nearby Silvertown in 1917. The show itself was delivered in a rather worthy, if uninspiring manner. The fireworks were certainly the highlight.
Our exit from the park was somewhat challenging and disconcerting, with security people apparently blocking every possible exit. Somehow we managed to escape and get onto a DLR train heading back home.
Paradise Gardens is rather a misnomer for the site on which this festival was held. It looks more like a disused gravel pit, which perhaps it was. The best bit IMHO was the jugs of cocktails served up be the overworked bar staff. The musical line-up was not that inspiring, possibly being aimed at a somewhat younger and more urban crowd than us oldies. We watched a rather formulaic performance by Dreadzone, who I had liked previously in the context of a chilled out Rhythm Festival. Here they really only seemed to be going though the motions, with most of their sound coming from a backing track. The band I would really have liked to see, Alabama Three, was on the Sunday line-up, so I never got to see them.
Our main reason for coming on the Saturday was to see the Silo D firework display. This was a mixed media show to commemorate the death of 73 workers that resulted from an explosion of a government TNT factory in nearby Silvertown in 1917. The show itself was delivered in a rather worthy, if uninspiring manner. The fireworks were certainly the highlight.
Our exit from the park was somewhat challenging and disconcerting, with security people apparently blocking every possible exit. Somehow we managed to escape and get onto a DLR train heading back home.
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