Crouch End resides in a small, quiet part of North London. I've been there a handful of times on Sunday afternoon walks and it's always been a favourite of mine. It has a beautiful laid-back appearance, but after delving a little deeper, I discovered its also got an expanding creative scene too. Crouch End festival took place in June this year and ran over two weeks from 6th - 15th.
The festival started out with founders Chris Arnold of ‘Crouch End Creatives’ (a social network group focusing on bringing passionate creatives together) and fellow Crouch End aficionado James Bridgman. Between them both they had a strong desire to champion the area, and establish its title as 'London's creative village'.
The concept behind Crouch End Festival is to encourage local venues, such as shops, galleries, cafes and bars to host events. These events can range from art lessons and impromptu drama performances, to poetry readings and acoustic music sets.
James asked us here at Gather.ly if we'd be interested in getting involved and creating a short film to showcase the festival and help spread the word for future years. Of course we said yes, this kind of thing is totally up our street. We asked around our creative community, created a few shout outs and came across the ever so talented Henry Napier-Brown of Boogaloo films.
We sent Henry off with a C500 video camera courtesy of Canon, a couple of assistants in the form of Laura Amy Liderth and Rebecca Orstadius, and a selection of Canon cameras for Crouch End volunteers to get in amongst it too.
Henry was amazing, he really grasped the concept and got totally involved in the festival - often seen running around from events like a music gig in the square and back in time for 'Barry and his guitar'. He even ran alongside a 'Pint Race' to film the best shots. This involved the bar staff from local pubs in the area, racing down the high street with a pint in their hands, trying their best not to spill it! Not sure if the true winner was the first to cross the line, or the one with most of their drink left...
Throughout the festival there were many events and musical acts from local talent. One amazing spot was the lovely India Graye, whose voice really was like a breathe of fresh air. Once she sang on stage, Henry knew that he had to record a secret live session with her for the soundtrack of the film.
Would you mind if we record you as the soundtrack to the film? Not at all! That's...pretty much a dream for me!
India was really great and sang a live rendition of her new song 'Unconvential' for us. It was a slightly unconventional shoot actually - outside some garages, near a lady's back garden, but I honestly got a few butterflies. Incredible talent, I suggest you check her out...
A big focus for the festival this year was the 10th anniversary of Simon Pegg's film 'Shaun of the Dead', as it was filmed in the area of Crouch End where Simon used to live. However, nothing had prepared me for the walk back down from my house to the festival on Saturday - I was bombarded with sea of Zombies coming towards me!
It was the Zombie walk I had heard James talking about the day before and an open air screening of the film to celebrate anniversary. Spirits and Zombie arms were pretty high, with hundreds taking over the area in true horror film style, with a hint of comedy though as most moonwalked past Starbucks to the theme tune of Thriller.
Henry was pretty stoked to say the least when Simon Pegg retweeted his Zombie video the weekend after to express his admiration for both the festival and the area!
What do they do when there are cars on the road? Do you block off the area?
No...I guess they just zombie around them...
The sense of community and encouragement of creativity at the Crouch End Festival is really refreshing and great to be around. There is a huge element of humour with the festival, and everyone just felt relaxed enough to express themselves freely without holding back. Trust me, they really didn't hold back!
Now in its third year, the festival is ever growing, with hundreds of individual events taking place. We were so happy at Gather.ly to be involved this year and next year there'll be room for many more, so if you'd like to know more or be involved with both us and the festival, then get in touch through the website here...
