John's Funshop

Over two Thursdays we had John, who gave us a brief on creating an event/festival that bares all of the aspects to the infamous 1960's festival Woodstock. Something that still remains strong in the minds of the people who lived it.

Our ideas were limitless. It wasn't a case of having boundaries to work with and all the pressures that can be faced in design. We were put into a team where we had to put together ideas and formulate a plan of action.

Group smashing out some ideas. Talking through where were are going with this project.

Mindmap. Keeping our ideas fluent and able to flow across one another. Definitely a good start.

Our main idea was a ' sick day ' where the people of Leeds/Yorkshire would pull a sicky at work and have the chance to be part of something they may not necessarily have the chance to do. We created a perimeter for our event, which allowed us to focus on areas, which we could put our ideas into. We looked at music, social, art, food and all the essential aspects to creating a successful event. Everything would be incorporated into our idea.

We came up with these ideas:

-A free event, open for everybody to attend
-Held inside the ringroad boundary of the city
-Un-announced artists playing in different venues all over the city, from small unheard bands to big international figures. (NCP carparks, hyde park pub, mullenium square.)
-An indoor beach located in one of leed's football stadiums.
-Street performers
-Brigett street covered in canvass for people to draw on.
-Huge camping areas in Hyde park.
-All the acts and events going on would be talked about by word of mouth rather than flyers posters etc.

Ideas for the name of our event; The big weekend, Leeds Big day, The day off, City wide, street party leeds, The big day off, etc

We wanted to make this a free event. Something that appeals to people more during the economic stage of our country and this moment in time. This would allow people to have a breath of fresh air, communicate and socialise with people they may not have had the chance to before. Participate in activities that they may not have realised they could be part of. It's designed for the people. Allowing them to feel good about themselves. 

The fact the whole event is based around the city. Means we could use buildings, areas and public space to broadcast musicians and bands. Putting a different approach on the whole 'staged festival' where people had to find out where, when and what time the bands were playing. This would make it more exciting for people to approach. Our 'Where's Wally ?' idea, involves around 100 volunteers dressed as wally, walking around the city. People had to find them and in return would be given the bands time and place.

Overall I'm pretty happy and involved with the group I worked with. The project gave everyone a breather and allowed us to free our minds without restrictions. Anything can be done. That was the aim of the brief and I think we completed it a standard.