CHELSEA FRINGE REACHES 80 EVENTS!

These initiatives span a massive range of topics, from avant-garde performance art projects, to hands-in-the-soil community gardening in inner-city streets, to restaurant and flower-store pop-ups, to parties and poetry or music evenings.

Fringe founder-director Tim Richardson says: 'We always hoped we would get maybe twenty to thirty projects in the first Fringe, so we are amazed and delighted we now have eighty initiatives right the way across London.'

 

All the details (including map, calendar and press area) can be found on the website, but here is a selection of Fringe events, to provide a flavour:

ART

The 'Floating Forest' in the waters of Portobello Dock -- 600 sawn logs positioned by Montreal design team NIP Paysage

'Heavy Plant Crossing' -- Astonishing performance art piece (Arts Council funded) by Julia Barton, dragging a metal plant around west London

Aromatic Herb Mobile at the Geffrye Museum, created by Italian art team

The Wishing Trees project, just off Sloane Square (make a wish and tie it to the trees)

The Bicycling Beer Garden [all over -- two guys have made a mad bike covered in beer cans planted with veg]

Episodes of a Flowerbed -- particpatory plant-painting project by Viennese artists

'Towers' -- massive planted towers loom outside the Garden Museum, created by designer Adam Shepherd

FAMILY

The Edible High Road -- spot all the fruit trees placed along Chiswick High Road and adjacent streets

Open Garden Squares Weekend -- special events for the Fringe across June 9/10

The Oranges and Lemons garden (inspired by the rhyme) in front of St leonards Church, Shoreditch

GARDENING

Healing herbal walks at 'Living Under One Sun' community garden in the middle of 'riot-torn' Tottenham

Audio-described tours of Chelsea Physic Garden for blind and partially-sighted people

The Dalston Flower Show -- lots of events curated by the stylish Dalston Eastern Curve garden

The Edible Bus Stops -- events around this Brixton bus-stop cum veg garden

SHOP AND EAT

Cliftons Nurseries pop-up flower shop in the COS Store on Brompton Road

EAT OUT at Vacant Lot: homegrown suppers in a pop-up vegetable garden in Hoxton

Daphne's restaurant, Chelsea, is transformed into The Tuscan Garden -- with special garden-themed menu

PERFORMANCE / TALKS / WALKS

The Garden of Disorientation -- mint-themed space complete wit mojito bar in a disused slaughterhouse in Smithfield -- grea venue for talks, debates and films

The 'End of the Fringe Picnic' on June 10, in the newly restored Jubilee Gardens under the London Eye, featuring a wind octet conducted by Charles Hazlewood

Hidden Hyde Park -- a unique walking tour convened by the experts of the Garden History Society

The Idlers Grove -- Come to the party to celebrate unveiling of a medieval herber garden at the Idler magazine salon/shop in Notting Hill

An evening of garden-themed poetry at the Libertine pub, Borough (May 26)

The Chelsea Fringe festival is a brand new initiative that's all about harnessing and spreading some of the excitement and energy generated around gardens and gardening at this time of year. The idea is to give people the freedom and opportunity to express themselves through the medium of plants and gardens, to open up possibilities and to allow full participation. Entirely independent of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (though acting with its support), the Fringe will explode out of the showground in three ways:

-- Geographically, in that the Fringe events are occurring across London, not just in Kensington and Chelsea

-- Demographically, in that the Fringe reaches out to include all those who might not normally consider visiting the main show

-- Conceptually, in that the Fringe covers everything from grass-roots community-garden projects to avant-garde art installations

For more information about the Chelsea Fringe visit www.chelseafringe.com