Peoples' Day

Peoples’ Day is a community event “designed to increase understanding and to celebrate the diverse communities that make up Brighton & Hove”. The streets around the Pavilion Gardens were zoned out with areas ranging from the Craft Zone, a place to learn a new skill, to the Eco Zone, a place to learn about the environment and make the city more sustainable. Sensibly it had commercial and community groups together.

It was always tempting fate for us to be neighbours to South Down Solar and it was an ominous warning when one child screamed in terror at the sight of a strange bright orange balloon, the colour of the sun.

The other neighbours were on the level, well at least on about the Level. Cityparks described and engaged people in the new scheme for redeveloping the park, though these days it needs to be designed for water sports: wellie splashing, wind surfing and water skiing.

I was with BHOGG, www.bhogg.org, what a great name for an organic gardening group this year. There we meet people on the streets, recruited members for our allotment projects and talked about organic gardening. Gardeners are probably the only group that usually smile when rain is on the way; they have been a happy group this year for sure and there was a contented buzz of conversation among good company on Saturday.

Peoples’ Day is a great idea and was generally well managed by the Council with its great gazebos (ideal for sheltering from the blazing sun and ….), that were placed in the prime positions and accompanied by the careful control of cars, that were correctly led in and led out putting people first. The community stalls were schizophrenically free, first of all costing £36, then announced as free, then we received an invoice for £66 and then a credit note of £66 !

The sun drew the people out for the day and the rain drove them to ground in the gazebos,.. as the spiders offered shelter to the flies. The Jubilee Library was the Relaxation Zone- it was always going to be the place to take a break and escape relentless rain without poor parents paying for relentless coffees and cokes.

The Green revolution came this year with the Irish rain, Saturday was no exception. Blissful sunshine for lunch, unremitting for rain for tea and overflowing gutters for dinner. The streets were stormed, as solar power gave way to water power, with people powering their way home to hot baths.

.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here