When Alice DJ'ed at Wonderland...

The other weekend, I was transported into a fabulous adaptation of 'Alice in Wonderland' at the Solstice, Peterborough, to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the novel. I was honoured to be asked to curate a series of tracks to set the mood throughout the daytime and night time activities. 'Wonderland' was a collaboration of over 20 artists, including the nationally toured 'Circa69' and their virtual reality experience, 'The Cube', as well as live painters, acoustic artists, dancers, bands and spoken word performers. Local musican, Paulo Morena was also one of my highlights, he entertained everyone by playing several instruments at once, and I thoroughly enjoyed some of the other acoustic performances throughout the day. In addition, we were fortunate enough to be treated to some visual delights at a 'Mad Hatters BBQ' installation, curated by some very talented artistic interns as a part of the local youth arts network, 'Emerge', and my friend and professional actor, Ross O'Dell. And who did I go as? Alice, of course!

The Emerge installation was a key point for me, as I have been working with them in my day job in our city centre incubator centre. We recruit three artists on a paid contract every 6 months as a part of the 'Peterborough Presents...' Arts Council funded programme, where my role is to then support them to work in an established arts placement relevant to their practice (usually outside of the city in bigger cities, like London). We also deliver a bespoke business training programme to them, to assist them on their journey towards becoming sustainable artists. Generally they can be from any artistic background, but this time we've recruited three visual artists, so they were all put to the task of creating some impressive displays!

Musically, this was a real challenge for me, because using new styles of music that I am not used to means that learning how to work with it and create something can be hard to master straight away. A few months ago I encountered a similar experience when I was asked to DJ a 1920's Gatsby party. To be honest, initially I had no clue how to do this, as as great as 1920's style music is, I didn't think it would get this particular crowd onto the dancefloor. I used this as an opportunity to learn and open my eyes to new types of music that would work. Electro swing anyone?

For this particular request I decided to create several mixes to fit the ambience and theme of the day, ranging from trip hop, to electronica, tech house and glitch house music. Check out one of those mixes below!

Overall I think the organiser, Nucleus Events did a fantastic job and it was amazing to see a local event that had more to it than just the usual run of the mill activity produced by the 'Peterborough Presents..' project.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your feedback!

Fashion Thursdays Launch - Mixing Music and Fashion Shows

So I've been a little quiet lately as I've been doing a bit of traveling, which I can't wait to post about! But the two days I had in between coming back from Romania and jetting off to Portugal, I launched a new event called 'Fashion Thursday' back at home in Peterborough, in the UK, which I both organised and DJ'ed at.

About a month ago, I came up with the idea with a friend to mix in fashion shows with a club night, to showcase local brands and generally just have a good time. We chose a local haunt, Monroes (named after Marilyn!) which had a cool vibe and great cocktails - all the ingredients needed for a good night out.





Having not organised a fashion show in a while, it seemed a little daunting to do so in under 4 weeks, especially with a full time job and weekend DJ work, but I'm certainly not one to shy away from a challenge! I was really impressed with the professionalism of all the models, makeup artists and hairdressers, who worked so hard to help me to make this event a success at such a short notice.








We showcased two local retailers, 'Niros', who sell high end menswear, and 'Asylum', a funky high street store which stock on trend alternative and vintage styles. So a bit of a contrast, then! We generally don't have many events like this in Peterborough, so I thought this might be something new and refreshing. Needless to say, I think the experiment proved successful!

Huge thanks also goes to Moses Kambele, Josh Daniels, and Tom Gates who's photos are featured in this post!


Asylum

I was lucky to find some fabulous makeup artists and hairdressers, Eloise Wilson and Jenner McKenzie on the makeup, (below) and lovely ladies Mollie Walker and Laura Stringer working tirelessly on hair.

Niros Peterborough

Here are just a selection of some of the Hugo Boss and Armani suits worn by some fab models!

The night wouldn't have been the same without the two brands who came down to help out - Niros who were amazing helping us with rehearsing the routines and Asylum who just partied hard and made the atmosphere great!

 I of course worked really hard all night (with the occasional cocktail in my hand for good measure)

 And I wasn't the only one enjoying a cocktail or three!

It was such a fun night! It took a lot of overtime last month to get this sorted on a budget of almost zero, but with a lot of support and such a great team gathered in a short space of time, I think we did a great job.

What do you think of the pictures? Have you been to any fashion shows recently? I'd love to hear about it!

Seven Facts About Me

So I have been blogging about various beauty, fashion, event, travel topics for a few months now - but I realised I haven't really talked much about my life outside of that. I don't want to go on about myself so this will be a rare post, but I guess it might be useful for people to know the way my life works and what motivates me to do the things I do, and like the things I like!

So here it goes;

1. I used to play the drums, guitar, and keyboard, and I have vocal lessons still. I was never the best musician but I do love music lessons, and always walk out feeling lifted and happy!

2. I have the most daft kitten called Jives (see right), it's probably my own fault since I gave her such a silly name.

3. I manage an enterprise centre called 'Ignite' in Peterborough, the UK. We support people under the age of 30 to set up their start up business ideas with free office space, mentoring advice from business experts, help finding funding, and lots more. It's really rewarding and I work with lots of really interesting people. It's inspired me to consider so many start up ventures of my own!

4. I'm currently learning how to produce music as well as just DJ as I want to broaden my horizons :)

5. I go to London at least once a week now, but I never tire of the buzz and excitement of it, and like a lame tourist pretend I live there. I would love to live there, but I kind of prefer it this way because I'm close enough to still get to everything, whilst still remaining super excited with the vibe of the place every time I go. I'd hate to lose that.

6. My boyfriend is really really tall. Honestly he is nearly 7 ft. I like that because I'm actually quite tall for a girl, so it makes me feel like I'm an average height. He also often gets mistaken for Jesus.

7. I'm rehearsing weekly to be in a play that my friend wrote, which is being published and performed later in the summer. It involves talking in a northern english accent, which is gradually improving (at a slow rate, I am terrible with accents).

I also produced some theatre of my own last year, where I directed a play I wrote about sex trafficking, which was based as a performance inside a residential house (one in London, and one in Cambridge).  Actors and actresses portrayed stories of real women who had been sex trafficked into the UK, and the audience walked round the room as an installation. I'd love to do it again one day if I find the funding! Visit Ophelia Circus, my website, to see more!



What are some interesting facts about you? Let me know!

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