Stage the City: Reflecting on The Meadows Musical Montage

‍On Saturday 2 May, our Meadows group filled Arkwright Meadows Community Gardens with music, movement, and a lot of good energy for a brilliant May Day celebration.

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Will It Rain? 

There’s always that one question hanging over any great British outdoor event: will it rain? As the community gathered for an afternoon of music, dancing, and delicious food, umbrellas were packed and skies were closely watched.

The garden buzzed with anticipation - not just from the bees but with people busying themselves getting the final details of the event ready creating a real sense of excitement in the air.

Behind the scenes, the singers had arrived and were getting ready. Ben led a vocal warm-up, followed by a quick run-through with the microphones. T-shirts on, smiles ready - they were set to go.

As the doors opened, the garden quickly filled with a wonderful mix of people of all ages. Families, friends, neighbours - everyone finding their place, plates piled high with delicious food from the community cafe and the Maypole dancing began. Music played, the ribbons twirled, and just like that, the event had officially started… along with a few fluttering nerves among the performers.

12.30 arrived, the audience had their lyric books at the ready, Dale took his place on the hill, a hush fell over the crowd as he began a magical solo of “Pure Imagination” from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you could feel the audience lean in, they were hooked from the very first note.

One by one, members of the Musical Meadows group joined him, surrounding him on the hill, seamlessly, the music lifted into an uplifting rendition of “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. Toes began tapping, heads were nodding and the singers were accompanied by 2 small impromptu dancers from the crowd at the bottom of the hill. 

The group continued the singing journey with “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” from The Bodyguard, “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley, “The Bare Necessities” from the Jungle Book and “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman all selected by members of the group, but the next song was extra special.

The musical Meadows group collaborated with Exchange songwriters and producers Ashley Reid, Jada Quarrie and Jacob Elliott to create an original song for the day called “Our Community”. Our Community is an anthem for The Meadows; about how coming together makes us stronger, how we can plant seeds of hope and joy together, and to remind us when we are feeling low, look around, joy is found!  

The final song from the group was a real sing and dance-a-long, and by now the crowd were all up on their feet, “Thank ABBA for The Music” 

A special mention must go to the set made and designed by Gemma Caseley-Kirk, which added its own vibrant spark to the day and a big thank you to Joss Francis from The Bunkhouse Studios for making sure the tech side of things ran without a hitch. 

And the weather? Perfect. Not a raindrop in sight. 

Images by Lamar Francois