This Sunday in Bristol saw the combination of Make Sundays Special (its second month of 2014) and Park on Park Street. It was a beautiful day for it, mostly sunshine, some clouds, but lots of warmth (plus no rain!!), and Park Street was packed!
A couple of friends and I wandered up yesterday, passing first on our left an outdoor restaurant area, with seating laid out on the concrete part of college green. We then passed the stage at the bottom, where there was cooking going on, and later music and raffles. A bit further up were ice cream vans, a big P A R K sign – a great photo opportunity (if you could grab a moment with no-one else doing the same), more food stalls and, quite a bit further up, some patches of grass.
Now I don’t know about you, but in the run up to POPS, there had been illustrated pictures going around on twitter, Bristol Post, and other publications of a Park Street with large sections covered in fake grass. Now obviously illustrations must be taken with a pinch of salt, especially when they’re in the name of art, but this was somewhat misleading with only a few small spots of grass on your right as you walk up, most of which were too full of people.
I won’t lie, I really liked the atmosphere – the people chilling out, the sun, the giant noughts and crosses, connect four etc, the food smells wafting the length and breadth of Park Street, and the general community feel that the monthly Make Sundays Special brings without fail. But yes, admittedly our expectations of more grass, and perhaps some creatively fake trees, were raised slightly too high.
As many have been saying – really nice idea, but it needed to be better executed – maybe some inflatable trees, hanging flowers, and perhaps just more creativity in general, since that is precisely what Bristol is known for.
I had a nice day though, and it seemed so did many others.
A couple of friends and I wandered up yesterday, passing first on our left an outdoor restaurant area, with seating laid out on the concrete part of college green. We then passed the stage at the bottom, where there was cooking going on, and later music and raffles. A bit further up were ice cream vans, a big P A R K sign – a great photo opportunity (if you could grab a moment with no-one else doing the same), more food stalls and, quite a bit further up, some patches of grass.
Now I don’t know about you, but in the run up to POPS, there had been illustrated pictures going around on twitter, Bristol Post, and other publications of a Park Street with large sections covered in fake grass. Now obviously illustrations must be taken with a pinch of salt, especially when they’re in the name of art, but this was somewhat misleading with only a few small spots of grass on your right as you walk up, most of which were too full of people.
I won’t lie, I really liked the atmosphere – the people chilling out, the sun, the giant noughts and crosses, connect four etc, the food smells wafting the length and breadth of Park Street, and the general community feel that the monthly Make Sundays Special brings without fail. But yes, admittedly our expectations of more grass, and perhaps some creatively fake trees, were raised slightly too high.
As many have been saying – really nice idea, but it needed to be better executed – maybe some inflatable trees, hanging flowers, and perhaps just more creativity in general, since that is precisely what Bristol is known for.
I had a nice day though, and it seemed so did many others.