Lewis Toumazou from Fore Street for All on another successful ‘Thursday Lates’ event and what’s next for the community arts group

*Cups of delicious free Nigerian vegetable and pepper soups by Coal City warmed up passers-by (credit Timothy Pei)*

Over the past year Fore Street For All Community Interest Company (CIC) has been delivering a cultural programme along Fore Street in Angel Edmonton.

Our ‘Thursday Lates’, a series of events that runs on the first Thursday of each month, brings the community together as we work with local residents and businesses to help foster a night-time economy along our local high street.

Fore Street for All is a collaboration between residents group React, local architects Fisher Cheng and Edmonton-based art organisation Artist Hive Studios. For our last event of 2022 we wanted to go out with a bang, so we decided to organise a night festival along Fore Street.

The festival celebrated Fore Street’s people, places and past. Inside Fore Street Library, which was renovated and reopened as a ‘living room library’ in 2022, we hosted stalls for local artists, businesses and groups, an art exhibition by sculptor Alf Linney and painter Tahira Tofa, while visitors hit the dancefloor for a silent disco.

People enjoyed Cath Carver’s Soft Salon art installation upstairs at Gaby’s café, photography workshops and a live performance by Lost Chimes at Cousins Snooker Club, plus a vibrant music and dance performance on the high street by Mbilla Arts and Somos Chibchas.

Visitors and locals gathered to listen to music from the New River Dixielanders brass band inside the alleyway underneath Bridport House. The alleyway was lit up by lanterns made by local school children from Raynham and St John and St James Primary School.

Cups of delicious, free Nigerian vegetable and pepper soups by Coal City warmed up visitors and passers-by. The vegetables which would have otherwise gone to waste were donated by Brothers Fruit & Veg Ltd, an Edmonton-based greengrocers. Local supermarket Big Ben donated meat for the non-vegetarian soup, and local veteran fruit and veg seller Charlie donated bags of potatoes.

And that wasn’t all. We had a real-life reindeer outside school, a music production workshop on a double-decker bus, Buoy Meets Krill performed at The Gilpin’s Bell, with local reggae band The Royal Sounds closing the festival and receiving an encore from a crowded pub.

It was wonderful to see families and young people happily going from one venue to another, along a high street that residents don’t usually feel safe on at night. Our cultural programme aims to change the negative image of Fore Street by championing the amazing work of local businesses, individuals and groups for a safer high street for all in the community.

Children got their picture taken with a real-life reindeer outside St John & St James Primary School — *Children got their picture taken with a real-life reindeer outside St John and St James Primary School* *(credit Timothy Pei)*

We look forward to delivering more exciting events in Fore Street in 2023 and beyond. I have recently been hired by Fore Street For All CIC as the curator to manage and deliver the monthly programme of events. We also have two paid part-time trainee positions available and a mentorship scheme, both aimed at local residents.

Find out more about Fore Street For All:
Email [email protected]
Instagram @forestreetforall
Visit forestreetforall.com

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