I was lucky enough to assist Zap Art on Photo Communale , on Saturday 12th March. The huge traditional camera travelling up the Newhaven High Street was an amazing sight, while excited and fascinated Newhaven residents had their photos taken with the performers of Générik Vapeur. Shopkeepers came out of their shops, people hung out of their windows and everyone was smiling and laughing, the energy from everyone was pretty magical.
Newhaven is a fairly small town with an emphasis on fishing, the ferry port, and there is a train station very central to the town which all makes it feel like a town at the middle of everything but the centre of nothing. Many of the people who we spoke to over the two days before said that nothing ever really happens there. But as we all discovered, it isn’t because people wouldn’t like it to...they really loved Generik’s show, and gave a warm welcome to everyone involved in making the event happen.
La Photo Communale also seemed to give an opportunity to groups like the Marching Band and the Choir to be part of something bigger for the town, which is a great start before the large event happening in July.
My personal role was to steward in the High Street. I also got to talk to people about the 16th July event the company will be presenting, Newhaven Cormorant !.
It was also great that a few separate people recognised the name Zap Art and asked if it was linked to the Zap Club (it had been a long time ago) and seemed even more thrilled when they heard it was.
It was a vibrant and exciting event, and the fact that it ended with a toast with the company and the audience was the ideal way to bring it to a close. It will be really interesting how Newhaven becomes part of preparations for the Newhaven Cormorant on the 16th July.