Crawley's online Right Here festival will celebrate town's pandemic creativity

The Right Here festival comes from arts organisation Creative Crawley, running on January 29 and 30 (www.creativecrawley.com)

Taking place online and with outdoor art for passers-by to discover around Crawley, the two-day festival will showcase the talent and creativity of the town in more than 20 events.

From audio tours to storytelling for toddlers and sing-along for people with dementia, from writing to photography to images on lampposts, the festival will represent all the diverse talents and tastes of the community, also drawing in audiences from elsewhere in the online programme.

Curated by Crawley born-and-raised Louise Blackwell and artist Sinead Emery, the festival is split into four sections:

Happenings: events and exhibitions happening outdoors and online, including ten images celebrating local people in lockdown on lampposts across the town, an audio tour with recorded stories about local people’s favourite walks and live streamed poetry and music.

Workshops: interactive sessions for people of all ages, from storytelling for toddlers, creative writing for mums of young children and sing-alongs for people with dementia

Talks & Film: young people including Crawley Community Youth Services and Manor Green College have created films to be shown online, plus creatives of Crawley including actress Grace Saif (Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why).

In Your Home: music available direct to your home from Songbirds Virtual Choir and Dormans Youth Arts Centre, recommended book of the day, and an online live streamed Festival Finale with short films, music and spoken word.

Festival curator Louise Blackwell is promising a rich and vibrant two days - with the focus firmly on the creativity of Crawley.

The seeds for the festival were sown in the depths of the first lockdown last year when the town’s resilence and creativity were firmly to the fore. By August, most of the funding was in place.

And then the festival showed its own resilience when, as lockdown loomed again, details of the programme had to be modified. The full programme available at creativecrawley.com is:

Fully Booked: Recommended book of the day by Crawley Library, Jan 29 and 30, all day. Online. Tune in to hear a book recommendation from Crawley library.

People’s Pathways by LPK Learning, Sinéad Emery and Gaz Tomlinson, Jan 29 and 30, all day. Audio trail, different locations in Crawley. Local people have recorded stories about their favourite walks in Crawley since March 2020. Download the stories.

Lockdown Looking Glass by LPK Learning, Crawley Museum and Rachel Cowell, Jan 29 and 30. Art exhibition, online. Local people will be filming objects with a narrative about their meaning to be collated into a digital collage and shown as part of the Festival Finale

Awakening by Same Sky, Jan 29 and 30. Same Sky commissioned artists to produce ten new light sculptures that represent their lives since March 2020 and they will be on display for passers-by to discover.

Capturing Lockdown by LPK Learning, Woodard Photography, Crawley Museum and Sinead Emery, Jan 29 and 30. Photos taken by local people since March 2020 will appear on different lampposts in Crawley for passers-by to discover.

Cultural Kitchen: Recipe of the Day by Diverse Crawley, Jan 29 and 30, all day. Online (recorded). Join local residents as they share their cultural recipes with you online including recipes from Poland, Nigeria, Portugal and England.

2020 Photography by Crawley Camera Club, Jan 29 and 30, all day. Online (recorded). An online exhibition of images taken and individually selected by members of Crawley Camera Club in 2020.