It was half term this week, which doesn't really affect us except that all our favourite places were crazily crowded! The good thing about it though was that it meant the Imagine Children's Festival at the Southbank Centre.
There had been a lovely build up, with cartoon monsters by artist Jon Burgerman popping up all over the Southbank.
The festival itself was a riot of shows, music, workshops, interactive sculptures etc. It was insanely busy and we saw some very stressed parents, but all the children seemed to be having a good time.
Our first stop was the Lego book.
This had been built by people attending the festival the week before so sadly we'd missed out on that, luckily Povey was just happy to see it.
After that we felt drawn over to the Festival Control Room, which had been built and was being run by local children. We signed up for the 15 minute tour and got to see all around the structure they had created with a special portal....
Magnetic letter board....
...interviews with visitors to the centre, and the mallow machine... sadly out of order that day!
In the inside part of the structure were bean bags for lounging on...
.... a look out tower (here with one of the kids running the place giving us a talk)....
Povey liked the free library and in particular the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, we must look for them in our own library!
The rest of the time we just explored around the rest of the free stuff like these cool glasses that turned all light into rainbows....
....a chance to create your own Imagine monster....
....and adding their hopes and dreams to the tree and elephant sculptures...
At 3.00pm it was the workshop we'd booked them in for; The Great Escape (A Borrower's Tale). This was an interactive theatrical experience, lasting 80 minutes and for children only!
The children were all taken through by people in white coats and glasses and hung up their coats before disappearing out of view!
We did spot them wandering around the Festival Hall a couple of time all in the same white coats and glasses! Papaya looked very happy and Povey had his serious concentrating face on!
Whilst they were in their show we watched the junior bands performing in the centre dance hall, with compère by the amazing Madame Lark! The quality of the bands was very impressive and the exuberance brilliant. They even projected up the words so we could join in!
My two came out of the Borrowers show bubbling with excitement about what they had seen and looking everywhere for signs of the Borrowers in holes in the ground and walls. They had a little leaflet showing some of the Borrower created objects they had spotted around the building.
A lovely moment was when they put their coats back on to leave and discovered a surprise in their pockets! A little plastic bag full of bits and pieces to make their own Borrower object!
Such a great little touch!
There had been a lovely build up, with cartoon monsters by artist Jon Burgerman popping up all over the Southbank.
The festival itself was a riot of shows, music, workshops, interactive sculptures etc. It was insanely busy and we saw some very stressed parents, but all the children seemed to be having a good time.
Our first stop was the Lego book.
This had been built by people attending the festival the week before so sadly we'd missed out on that, luckily Povey was just happy to see it.
After that we felt drawn over to the Festival Control Room, which had been built and was being run by local children. We signed up for the 15 minute tour and got to see all around the structure they had created with a special portal....
Magnetic letter board....
...interviews with visitors to the centre, and the mallow machine... sadly out of order that day!
In the inside part of the structure were bean bags for lounging on...
....and an interview room in the form of a mini ball pit!
Povey liked the free library and in particular the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, we must look for them in our own library!
The rest of the time we just explored around the rest of the free stuff like these cool glasses that turned all light into rainbows....
....a chance to create your own Imagine monster....
....and adding their hopes and dreams to the tree and elephant sculptures...
At 3.00pm it was the workshop we'd booked them in for; The Great Escape (A Borrower's Tale). This was an interactive theatrical experience, lasting 80 minutes and for children only!
The children were all taken through by people in white coats and glasses and hung up their coats before disappearing out of view!
We did spot them wandering around the Festival Hall a couple of time all in the same white coats and glasses! Papaya looked very happy and Povey had his serious concentrating face on!
Whilst they were in their show we watched the junior bands performing in the centre dance hall, with compère by the amazing Madame Lark! The quality of the bands was very impressive and the exuberance brilliant. They even projected up the words so we could join in!
My two came out of the Borrowers show bubbling with excitement about what they had seen and looking everywhere for signs of the Borrowers in holes in the ground and walls. They had a little leaflet showing some of the Borrower created objects they had spotted around the building.
A lovely moment was when they put their coats back on to leave and discovered a surprise in their pockets! A little plastic bag full of bits and pieces to make their own Borrower object!
Such a great little touch!
