Season's Greetings & Thank You From Mark of Rockaway Park
Hi there,
Just wanted to send out best wishes for the season to everyone that follows and takes an interest in what we do here at Rockaway.
It seems strange looking back on a year, as I'm more used to looking forward, but we’ve had some great performances, meals, classes and courses, and we've done plenty of work to help make the place what it is and what it's becoming. We hope you're enjoying the trip as much as we are!
There have been some great shows here throughout the year... Dunstan Bruce doing 'Am I Invisible Yet?' for Rockaway Arts Week; The Subhumans, Steve Ignorant doing Crass songs, The Grow Your Own Festival, and loads more bands that have played in my tent, plus several live streams. One of my highlights was also one of the trickiest! We booked Days N Daze and sold out the show. Then, with 5 minutes to go and with Rockaway heaving, the band cancelled and left us in a really difficult situation... But in typical style, hardly anyone worried about the cancellation and we pulled off one of the best events we’ve ever run here. I caught Covid immediately after the show, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Pulling a success from a catastrophe is what we do best and I loved it!
I'd like to take this opportunity to say thanks to all those that go the extra mile to help us do what we do. To Michelle who puts all our media and films together (and to Dick for all his support and driving Michelle around ) making our website and Facebook page grow at a vast rate! To Flash who has never stopped building everything around us. To Si at Carry On Screening who, since moving to Rockaway has helped so much with printing and helping turn my visions and ideas into tangible printed items... it makes a huge difference. To Howie and Bimble, who pull the sound together and schmooze the musicians and artists. To Luis, who turned out such a great promo video 'Clutching Diamonds From the Ashes.' To Mark and Ellie who have done such a great job with building up the Sunday Markets. To Poppie and all the garden volunteers who are really starting to see results. To Zoe, who does such an awesome job of controlling everything for Sunday roasts and keeps everyone sweet. To Rona and Hani and everyone else who have pitched in when needed. Without a doubt, I will have missed some of you out and I'll be beating myself up for it, but I am so glad to have the people around us that we have and wish you all well.
Then there's you lot, who support us and "like" everything and come to shows and sign up for workshops and generally help make Rockaway the place it is. I thank you all!
There is so much more to come... We have been working on a feature documentary 'In Search of Heaven' with the team who made the short film, 'Somerset People'a few years back, and this is expected in midsummer. We are close to finishing our new outdoor canopy area that will enable us to have much bigger audiences, and to keep you all dry.
I am also really excited about my current obsession "The Chapel of Unrest," which is my project for us all to chip in to build a monument to protest, to the crazy times we are living through, and to Hope! We are going to need it more than ever.
And, of course, none of this would happen without Marta, who has cooked thousands of meals, packed loads of orders, done shed loads of paperwork, and above all kept me from falling apart…
Lots of Love and see you all soon,
Mark
PS: We've been snowed under with membership orders for the Chapel of Unrest and have run out of tee-shirt stock for the moment. We're also sorry that some orders won't arrive in time....but think of it as solidarity with the postal strikers out fighting for us all. If anyone else would like to join or buy a friend a late Christmas present, please see the link below:
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