viralmonitor Archive

[image: Inline images 1]

*Giant papier-mâché Queen leads floating festival as young Londoners ditch
stuffy Thames parade for Regents Canal*


   - Thousands expected after free event goes viral
   - Boats, booze and a seafaring soundsystem curated by top festival
   - Her Majesty invited (awaiting reply…)

Thousands of revelers will descend on the Regents Canal in east London on
Saturday after an online bid to host an alternative Jubilee event went
viral this week.

An eclectic selection of rafts, canoes and even bathtubs will follow the
‘Jubillegal’ barge as part of London’s alternative salute to the Queen’s
special day. The call to arms came about to offer younger royal fans a less
stuffy alternative to official proceedings.

Organisers are promising an epic sound-system curated by organisers of The
Glade, the electronic dance festival held in Hampshire, that originated at
Glastonbury.

The extravaganza will be topped off by a huge paper mache sculpture of Her
Majesty’s head. The jaw-dropper is being crowd-funded through
Spacehive.com, a new website to help fund creative public projects, at
www.spacehive.com/head

Celebrating the re-release of Sex Pistols anthem ‘God Save The Queen’ –
infamously performed on the River Thames during her Majesty’s Silver
Jubilee in 1977 - organisers are hoping to reintroduce a slice of anarchy
to the waterways.

Starting around Union Wharf in Islington, north London and floating,
paddling or punting down to Broadway Market in Hackney, east London, THE
QUEEN’S JUBILLEGAL is set to be a highlight of the capital’s Diamond
Jubilee festivities.

The event is the brainchild of Michael O’Shea, director of Animal Control,
after friends complained their Jubilee weekend was shaping up blander than
a cucumber sandwich.

They decided to use Spacehive.com to gather cash for the paper mache head
and many believe the crowd-funding site – which has been backed by
celebrities like Stephen Fry- could help support other community arts
projects.

His idea for a counter culture alternative to the stiff upper lip pomp of
the Queen’s Jubilee proper has captured the imagination of some of the UK’s
biggest festival organisers, with a wacky array of collaborations soon to
be announced.

A spokesperson for Glade Festival, said:

"With a festive four day weekend brewing, we thought it only fair that the
fine folk in London Fields should get a taste of what's to come at glade
festival this year.  We'll be at the head of the alternative flotilla,
laying down the bass lines with our resident DJ's and some very special
guests.  Come and join us one and all, as we prove that pirating is still
rife on London's waterways.  Don't forget to bring your swimsuit!"

Chris Gourlay, founder of Spacehive, said:

“This ultimate coming together of tradition and counter-culture shows our
creative, yet patriotic country at its most playful. We think Kate, Wills
and the other modern royals would have a far better time with us and we
seriously hope that this inspires others to come forward with great
community ideas that celebrate culture and creativity.”

Mike O'Shea, director of Animal Control, said:

“If London can party on its streets why not its canal? We at Animal Control
see The Queens Jubilee weekend as the perfect time to try out waterborne
partying in the name of Her Majesty.

“The Jubillegal will be a floating carnival for the people of London and
everyone's invited."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mm.chinwag.com/pipermail/viralmonitor/attachments/20120601/72b56d2a/attachment.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 70302 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mm.chinwag.com/pipermail/viralmonitor/attachments/20120601/72b56d2a/attachment-0001.png