COPOR: Celebratory & Outdoor Performance Online Resource

From the sacred space of the teenage bedroom to the communal bliss of a gig, this city-specific performance trail celebrates music’s power to change our lives and the places we live. Follow Me, follow the signs, on a sonic odyssey – on the road to revolution, in search of the city’s heartbeat.

Periplum collaborate with local communities, venues, musicians & universities to create a mass participation event celebrating local music scenes, cultural identity, social life & all that’s unique about a town. 1000 revolutions invites audience to become active players in a journey of discovery. Local musicians, DJs & mobile sound-systems create a musical map to evoke local history and lead audience through a series of secret locations.

FUSE 2010

In a version of 1000 revolutions specially commissioned for the 2010 FUSE Medway Festival, Periplum worked with 40 local people to create a Gillingham revolution. University of Kent Creative Events students made 7 visual installations and local band Tyrannosaurus Alan provided live music along the route.

Audience were led from the Adult Learning Centre - where rooms were transformed into teenage bedrooms - on to revolutionary music meetings in mobile units along the High Street. The Co-op car park became the space of a spontaneous underground party before the intervention of riot police played by local volunteers. A red route-master bus transported the action with a sing-along to the docks. Audience climbed into the belly of a Light Vessel (LV21) for intimate scenes with performers and a choir singing sea shanties in the hold could be heard all over the ship.  

Youth participants animated the Pier with choreography as the audience marched with placards celebrating Gillingham culture before being bussed to another side of town, where music venue The Barge became the final destination in the adventure.

‘Me and my friends all agreed it was one of the best nights out we’d ever had.’

Audience member, FUSE Festival

‘I have had amazing feedback from audiences who commented on how it was something completely different to anything they had ever seen before. Something amazing has happened in Gillingham and we shall build on this work for future years.’

Kate Hazel, FUSE Festival Artistic Director