A free two-day culture festival is coming to Croydon this month
Workshops, dance, music, food and more
Croydon is getting a free two-day cultural festival later this month with Surprised!.
Surprised! is all about Asian arts, culture and food, and will offer a whole stack of musical sets, workshops and cultural performances.
It will be held in the centre of Croydon, around the Whitgift Centre and North End — the most open part of the high street where these events are usually staged.
Events kick off at 12 on both the Saturday May 16th and Sunday May 17th, and finish up at 6pm and 5pm respectively. This is clearly a family-friendly event, not one that’s going to cause noise complaints in the evening.
Surprised! Is named after the famous Henri Rousseau painting of the same name, also known as Tiger in a Tropical Storm. While you may not know it by name, you've probably seen it before:
We don’t yet have the full timed schedule of events, but do have the a rundown of what you can expect at each of the mini festival’s areas and stages.
By the Whitgift Centre there will be a dance stage, with performances including a Sri Lankan masked dance, Flamenco–Bharatanatyam fusion, a Chhau Tiger Dance from Rhythmotion and a Chinese fan dance.
Up at the North End bandstand you can catch performances from the Djanan Turan Quartet, the Hengām Ensemble and The Sound of China, while there’s also a set from DJ Bobby Friction, who for years was a BBC radio DJ.
Croydon’s main shopping area will be livened up by a series of street performances, including one from the Bollywood Brass Band and a retelling of the story of Hanuman the monkey god with giant puppets operated by outdoor theatre group Inspirate. That's one not to miss.
You can also take part in a series of two-hour workshops, including ones on origami, mask making, tile painting, henna hand painting, dance and more. These are found in the North Square area.
Croydon’s main shopping street will be lined with food stalls, again mostly mining that Asian theme.
What does this have to do with Rousseau’s painting of a tiger? It may be a loose connection, but the painting is currently on display at the Whitgift Centre as part of the National Gallery’s Art On Your Doorstep initiative.
Other works currently peppered around Croydon include those from Klimt, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet — but these are reproductions rather than the originals, which is no surprise given a good number of them are on display outdoors. And the paintings themselves are worth an absolute fortune.
You can find a map of their locations over at the Culture Croydon website.
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