Big Summer of Outdoor Arts Blog: Rainham Events

By Georgia Smith, Creative Producer

Over the Bank holiday weekend, the Rainham Steering Group were proud to host 2 events for their local community.

The first event took place on 28th August at Rainham Hall Gardens where a lovely relaxing afternoon took place in their beautiful gardens. Activities included Tai Chi workshops with John Poon, walks around the gardens and their community allotments, family craft activity of decorating and making origami butterflies and a unique spa experience with Serenike Natural Spa. Families and groups of friends attended to enjoy the relaxing afternoon in this historic place in Rainham Village and enjoyed the free refreshments of fruit cakes, pastries and flavoured waters, which contributed to the lovely atmosphere of the whole afternoon.

One participant said "I always come to these gardens with my daughter and this was a great addition to the space today, she enjoyed the colouring in and I felt really pampered having the hand massage in the spa tent!"

Another participant explained "I have arthritis and this whole afternoon has been something I can participate in and not worry if I can do it or not. The hand massage really helped my wrists!"

Many people have since enquired about Tai Chi sessions in the Rainham area and this is something we can hopefully support to get started and this is a really valuable outcome from the event.

The second event took place at the Harris Academy in Rainham on the Bank Holiday Monday. Havering Changing partnered with Lightnin Drama and added an Outdoor Cinema event onto their family fun day. The community were asked to choose between 6 films and vote for their family favourite. We had 98 votes and The Greatest Showman was chosen!

Before settling down to watch the film, people were invited to watch a Comedy Cabaret Performance with Graffiti Classics. This was a wonderful way to greet people back for the evening and the laughter of the audience was a welcoming sound as people joined to watch.

Over 120 local people came with their fold up chairs, cushions and blankets to watch the film and sing along to the songs as they enjoyed the free refreshments of popcorn, drinks and other snacks. The evening came to a close with the audience clapping as the film ended and people enquiring about further opportunities to either attend or volunteer at future events.