Street party
In its traditional sense a street party is just as it seems: a party taking place on a road. In Britain, these have historically been held to commemorate momentous events, such as VE Day or the Queen's Silver Jubilee. These are usually jovial, community affairs where neighbours can meet, often for the first time, in their traffic-free streets. They successfully counter the anonymity of our mobile, diverse lives. A group called Streets Alive promotes them to become a regular part of British culture and they have a useful website resource.
As a form of activism street parties are festive and/or artistic efforts to reclaim public space by large groups of people. They were made known in Western Europe and North America by the actions of Reclaim the Streets, a widespread "dis-organization" dedicated to reclaiming public space from automobiles and consumerism.
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London children playing with go-carts during a 2008 Street Play day
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Street Play
London Play’s Big Lottery-funded Street Play project is facilitating 100 one-off road closures across London over three years (up until 2011) giving children a rare opportunity to play out on their street safely. The project was partly a response to statistics such as Playday 2007’s ICM report that revealed 71% of adults said they played in their street or an area near their home everyday when they were a child as compared to only 21% of children today.
The project has also established the 'Safer Street' forum to produce road safety guidance for children and adult residents holding Street Play events. Among the forum's 12 members are Christine Fitzgerald from the Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association and Transport for London, Dr Mayer Hillman: Senior Fellow Emeritus, Policy Studies Institute, Professor John Adams, Senior Fellow Emeritus, UCL and Richard Hebditch, Head of Policy and Communications at Living Streets.
The project is coordinated by Paul Hocker based in London Play's Finsbury Park offices.
See also
External links
- RTS - Reclaim the Streets
- street party For street parties in the UK
- Streets Alive
- Streetparty.net For planning a street party in the USA.
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