Happy Saturday and here’s a wee bonus and a 1 minute story from me ahead of next Friday’s newsletter.
Five years ago, a friend alerted me to the fact that Street Orchestra Live, a flashmob orchestra, were performing in the Northeast. Basically, they pop up in unexpected places and surprise people with a concert. Now, the orchestra were en route to Durham city but I shot them a cheeky text asking why they don’t do some more mining villages next time round and was surprised to receive a reply that they’d be on my doorstep in 90 minutes time!
What followed was the most joyous event- England had just won a World Cup quarter final so merry football fans, neighbours and even ponies gathered in the village pub carpark for an hour of absolute magic. This video shows John, a local resident, being invited up to conduct the orchestra. The ENTIRE orchestra piled into my hastily-tidied house for tea and jammy dodgers- it was utterly hilarious and has prompted me to work on a children’s story called ‘The Orchestra Who Came to Tea’(of course!).
I’ve realised how absolutely obsessed I am by these moments of pure creativity and unexpected joy. There is something ridiculously wonderful about the moment someone bursts into song or dance and a whole mob joins them. It makes me wonder what other good things we are capable of when we move as a group, listen to those around us and seek to create something amazing with our individual parts. It makes me wonder what the catalysts might be for co-creating such magic in local areas, without the need for mega resources outside of what we already have handy; things like our ideas, our voices, our bodies.
More of this to come next week but I thought you might enjoy seeing the video in advance and if you have a moment, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for you to recall and share a wee moment of creative joy you’ve experienced or stumbled across in your life, particularly what it FELT like. I’d love to include some of those next week.
The Orchestra Who Came to Tea: Part 1