Exhibition Road Music Day, Saturday 21 June 2008. The road was closed to traffic and this patch of South Kensington that is normally bursting at the seams with eager museum-goers on a Saturday afternoon was even more packed for this one day free festival. Visitors had the chance to see new venues and hear new music; we were happy to sample some shouty yet meaningful female singer-songwriter rock while enjoying excellent open sandwiches piled high with German salami in the Goethe Institut, then hurried past the barn dance rollicking merrily across the side entrance to the V&A.
There were architectural installations as part of London Architecture Week and we were particularly taken by the Brompton Stoops. These sturdy cardboard stepped seats could be reconfigured to make impromptu areas to relax and chat or conjure up a performance space should some musicians or dancers wander by. At about 4pm, it was peaceful and reflective around the stoops as you can see in the picture above. At about 5pm, kids were given the specially branded tape and encouraged to explore their creativity with the stoops.
And then at about 5.45pm, it was Lord of the Flies in a stationery cupboard.
The smaller stoops were available to take home though you were lucky if you could find any under the heaps of sticky tape and hadn't been kicked to pieces. We salute the clean-up gang who had to deal with all this the day after - let's hope they unstuck the kids who got taped to lampposts and returned them safely to their homes.
