Category: Volunteering

A busy time gone by …

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Music, Street Art, Volunteering

I’ve been very busy lately, hence the lack of recent input to my blog. It all started with Yardworks, followed by volunteering at the Glasgow Mela, and this past weekend I was volunteering at Doune The Rabbit Hole festival, more information on each of these follows:

Yardworks

One of my favourite events is Yardworks, held at SWG3, this annual street art festival is one of my favourite weekends in Glasgow. The event, held on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th June, is one of Europe’s biggest dedicated to street art and graffiti – with artists and writers from across Glasgow, the UK and Europe coming together to paint and draw, creating an explosion of colour.

On the nearby railway arches, wall spaces and boards in the yard, the highly skilled artists including Smug, Ejek, Rogue One and many others worked side by side with some of the most celebrated names from around the globe – including Zurik, Bublegum, and Balstroem.

Smug + Bublegum + The Guzler

I was there on the Saturday with my mate Jim and his 10 year old grandson Jack and It was so good to be able to meet and chat with friends old and new, Jack was enthralled by the talent on display and expressed an interest in trying out some spray painting himself in the future.

Jack and his favourite mural

Sunday saw me back again, this time with my friends Gary and Jan Gammage, it was great to see the works develop and to see the eventual finished articles. Gary & Jan were interested in the many different techniques used, spray paint, palette, brush and the use of stencils in the development of the pieces.

It was a brilliant weekend, great art, good food and fun in the company of friends, what more could you ask for.

My photographs from the weekend can be found here.

Glasgow Mela

Sunday the 26th found me in Kelvingrove park volunteering at the Glasgow Mela, an annual multicultural music and dance festival. The Mela began in 1990 as part of Glasgow’s year as the European City of Culture and has grown from being an indoor event at the Tramway to an outdoor extravaganza, with something for all the family.


I was assigned as the Artist Liaison for the Navras (main) stage, which kept me busy for the whole day. At this stage, we had a variety of acts, dance, music and performance arts. Amongst the acts that entertained me and the crowds were Deesh Sandhu, Hunterz and the headliner Jaz Dhami and his band.

Being busy for most of the day I missed out on some of the other activities on offer but did manage to grab a nice lamb curry for lunch from one of the many food outlets on site.

Doune The Rabbit Hole

Doune the Rabbit Hole is an intimate, independent music & arts festival located amidst the glorious ancient oak trees of the Cardross Estate, near the Lake of Menteith, in Stirlingshire. Starting in 2010, at a site near the town of Doune (hence the name!) they have been celebrating the very best of Scotland’s independent arts scene alongside amazing international guests. This year’s line-up included main stage headliners like the legendary Patti Smith and Band, multi-million selling Scottish singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald, homegrown, world-famous talent Belle & Sebastian, English post-punk duo Sleaford Mods and Bellshill natives and superstars Teenage Fanclub, one of my son Graeme’s favourites (the video below is for him). I really enjoyed the set by Esperanza, a Glasgow Ska band, they took me back to my youth.

I was the artist Liaison on the Bandersnatch stage which had a sort of folkie and blues vibes, and thanks to Chris Blackmore, the Stage Manager and Phil the Sound Engineer, the atmosphere there was pretty chilled and relaxing and we had some really entertaining artists on stage including The Mary Wallopers, Rachel Sermanni and John Francis Flynn, it was good to see and listen to Erin Bradley-Scott perform, Erin is one of my favourite art groups, The Cobolt Collective, she certainly is a talented lady. It seems like I can never get away from street art and artists, I even came across a nice piece by Ross MacRae next to the Jabberwocky stage, I really like his work.

There was also some exceptional food on offer, although there was a crew canteen I gave it a miss at times to sample the fare from Barnacles & Bones, Shawarmarama, and the Pizza Geeks.

As this was a weekend camping festival and I didn’t feel like camping, I decided to book a room in Willow Court, one of Stirling University’s halls of residence, overall this was a great choice. Another great weekend and I’m looking forward to heading back again next year

Birmingham

by theholmesteader, posted in Street Art, Volunteering

I have just returned from a few days in Birmingham, a city I had never visited until now, I must admit that I was very surprised just how much we enjoyed my time there. I visited, with my mate Jim, to attend an interview for a volunteers role at next year’s Commonwealth Games, spending time exploring what the city had to offer. We flew to Birmingham Airport and took a short shuttle ride to the nearby railway station to catch one of the many frequent trains into the city centre. We were booked into the Premier Inn beside New Street Station, which proved to be a great place to stay as its slap bang in the middle of town and close to all the main attractions.

My interview went well and I left feeling quite confident, however, there is no guarantee of a role, but at least I will have tried. Birmingham’s Christmas celebrations had kicked off while we were there with a massive German Christmas Market spread throughout the city centre and a giant Ferris wheel, an ice skating rink and a Walking with The Snowman trail amongst many other attractions.

As many of you know, I love to search out street art while in a new city and Birmingham certainly delivered onthat front too. I was directed to an area known as Digbeth and the Custard Factory, originally built by Alfie Bird to produce Bird’s Custard in 1906, it is now a creative hub and home to many independent shops, cafes, bars, restaurants, and galleries, there is even a dedicated graffiti supplies shop.

I discovered art by many artists new to me, some by other other well-known artists, there were also some by artists I have met in Glasgow. I took so many photographs around the area, a sample of some are shown below, the remainder can be seen in a separate page, which can be seen here:

COP26 in Glasgow

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art, Volunteering

I have been quite busy recently volunteering at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, I was based in the City Chambers in George Square in a Protocol role, this basically was a meet and greet role at the many Civic Receptions being held there. It was good to see the reaction of many of the delegates to the mosaic of the city’s coat of arms at the entrance to the building, and the many other mosaics found throughout the building, on the ceilings and domes, with an estimated 1.5 million individual tiles used and laid by hand. However, the greatest surprise was shown by many delegates when confronted by the marble staircase, made entirely from imported Italian Carrara marble, they were stunned to hear that it’s the biggest of its kind in Western Europe, meaning it’s one storey taller than the one in the Vatican City.

  • City Chambers entrance
  • Marble staircase
  • Marble staircase
  • City Chambers

COP26 gave some of our artists a chance to put up some new related works with some on the arches at SWG3 facing towards the SEC Campus. Although I was disappointed to see Guido Van Helten’s badminton player disappear from Wilson Street, I was pleased to see a new mural by the Fearless Collective showing the faces of indigenous leaders who have been at the forefront of the COP26 conference. If you look closely at the top of the mural you can see the top edge of the shuttlecock, a little bit of Guido’s legacy left behind.

  • Fearless Collective Wilson Street
  • Govan
  • YTardworks Arches
  • YTardworks Arches
  • YTardworks Arches
  • YTardworks Arches

While travelling around the city during the conference, I did manage to catch some good street art, with an especially nice piece by Frodrik at the side of CASS Art on Queen Street, a good mural about youth homelessness in Midland Street opposite James Kling’s portraits, but what really pleased me was a little charcoal type drawing of a figure in a doorway on Candleriggs, I noticed that as I made my way down the street after having a rather good pizza in Nonna Said with it’s ghood artwork by Conzothrob, he also pooped up in the St Enoch Centre with a funadvert for the new cinema there.  I’ve also included a mural from Mikaku on Queen Street painted by Rogue One.

  • Frodrik Cambridge Stret
  • Frodrik Queen Street
  • Rebel Bear Sauchiehall Street
  • Nonna said Candleriggs
  • Nonna said Candleriggs
  • Nonna said Candleriggs
  • Unknown Candleriggs
  • Molly Hankingson St Enochs
  • Conzothrob St Enochs
  • Rogue One Mikaku Queen Street
  • End youth homelessness by GWMcLaughli midland Street

EURO2020

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Volunteering

From the 11th of June until the 11th of July, I was busy volunteering at the EURO’s in Glasgow. Originally scheduled to take place in 2020, the event was postponed and held this year. There were two volunteering streams, one for Hampden and the other for the Fan Zone, which this year was held in Glasgow Green instead of the intended George Square.

I applied for both streams and was lucky to be selected for both. We were all kitted out with a nice uniform and were well looked after during the event by both of the management teams, with meals provided and a free rail travel card for use during the tournament.

I was at Hampden for the four matches held there and had great fun with 2 girls, at one of the main entrances to the stadium greeting the fans as they arrived, once all the fans had entered the stadium we were then able to go and watch the games, I must admit that I’m not much of a football fan, however I suppose the occasion got to me and I did enjoy what I saw.

  • Mohammed & I
  • The Gate C team
  • I managed to get on the pitch (for a wee while)

I was really comfortable in the Fan Zone, in addition to showing the games on match days on three giant screens, there was also a series of concerts and gigs to suit everybody, we had some really good bands, street theatre, comedy nights, a series of concerts by local school kids, who surprised every one with their talent, there was a cinema night and we even had The Queens on the Green Drag Show. I was on duty for many of the concerts as an Artist Liaison, a role I have performed in the past.

  • Graeme & I on the first night
  • On yer bike pal
  • My friend Fiona & I
  • One of my teams
  • Having a laugh at lunch time
  • Some street theatre

As this was, for many of the 300 or so volunteers in the Fan Zone, this was their first taste of freedom following the lockdowns, it was good to see so many happy and smiling faces, although not amongst the Tartan Army, who were a wee bit dejected when their team were put out of the competition.  It was a really fun month and I enjoyed meeting old friends and making loads of new ones.