Dominique here. Today we began the second phase of our ‘Red’ project which will be taking place in Bury and Chorley. During our residency in the St. John’s Centre in Preston we aimed to encourage at least one person everyday to get dressed entirely in red and walk a set route around the city centre and stop for a coffee on the way. The project ended with a large group of people dressed in red walking the same route single file. In Bury and Chorley the project will be slightly different. The challenge is to gather as many people as possible in both market towns over the next 4 weeks to take part in a ‘Red Day Out’ where the people of each town are invited to visit the 2 seperate locations together as one group. A guided tour of each town will take lace and the performance will be videoed and photographed as documentation of the event.
We left at 7:30am to head to Bury with the aim of getting parked up and meeting Craig Allen, the manager of Bury’s famous market, at 8:30am in the market offices. Needless to say, we got stuck in traffic, couldn’t find the recommended car park, and when eventually we did, the ticket machine next to the car was broken so I made haste to the only other ticket machine which was of course miles away. The wind was blowing and the rain heavy and horizontal. Freezing cold and just about managing to carry all our equipment, we stuggled forward with our heads down and hair blowing in our faces to meet Craig. Despite all the hurdles we were only 10 minutes late.
Against all adversity, our first has been a success. We are situated in the centre of the market, outside of the fish and meat hall and right in the middle of all the activity. An excellent location with an endless steam of people passing by and taking interest in why we’re dressed in red. We have already recruited two gentlemen named Andrew and David Ballard, brothers, who were extremely enthusiastic about getting involved. They stayed quite as we discussed what would be happening on the day. Another man named Maurice, an artist himself, offered to paint my portrait for £2 and an interesting one it was. We are back in Bury on Friday and are hoping the sun will be shining for us.
