Phoenix Festival - a family-friendly musical festival extravaganza
Saturday 3rd June to Sunday 4th June
Saturday June 3rd and Sunday June 4th were lovely early summer days, and the Trust had arranged a wide variety of events on both days covering the afternoon and evening from midday until 11pm.
The performances were of a uniformly high standard, and, as we hoped, many visitors stayed for quite a lot of the time to enjoy a number of acts. The feedback was uniformly positive and no one resented paying £10 for a ticket to spend as long as they liked at the Church.
On the Saturday, Boppin’ Bunnies entertained the children to an hour of song and movement. They are a great act who have performed at the church in the past. They were followed by singers from the Woolwich Opera Works providing a splendid and highly professional concert of well-known operatic tunes. Wilf Kirk, who came next is also well known to the Garrison Church as the steel drummer par excellence of South East London. The final performance of the day was a film performance of Mama Mia! organised by the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival.
As with the Sunday events all the acts were local, which was one of our objectives in planning the weekend.
The performances opened with a moving set from 19-year-old singer-songwriter Daisy Veacock, who set the right tone for the day. Perhaps the highlight of Sunday was the performance by the Reach Theatre Company Group directed by Tramshed and featuring young adults with learning difficulties. They were splendidly drilled and put on a really good 40-minute show supported by a good number of family and friends. One of our trustees David Rome accompanied by a virtuoso keyboard player then contributed an unforgettable hour of songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and other writers from the 1920s to the 1950s. Company 3 who are well known to supporters of the Church (and many other local organisations) followed. They are a tribute act to the Andrews Sisters performing in the costumes and with the songs of the period. They started with Alexander’s Rag Time Band and every song as received with enthusiasm. Ben Beddoes Big Band closed the day; a 16-piece Big Band with saxophones, trombones and trumpets who filled the chancel with the sounds of New Orleans jazz.
The two days showed off the Church's gardens to fantastic effect, with the flowers in the beds along both walls ablaze with colour.
