"Intergenerational rave" promised for Chichester!
Thanks to a recent Arts Council grant, Tot Rockin's Beats is coming to Chichester, promising 'intergenerational raving with a social conscience'.
The show brings together young parents, the elderly and children at a massive afternoon rave that allows the whole community to party together and yet be home in time for bath and bedtime, says organiser Dan Flanagan, from Worthing.
He is hoping 500 mums, dads, kids and senior citizens will take to the dance floor for a mass family-friendly event, transforming Chichester Student Union at the University of Chichester into a huge 90s-inspired rave on Sunday, July 29 from 2-5pm.
“For three hours, space that is usually reserved for students will be transformed into a mini-festival for mums ‘n’ dads ‘n’ little ones, featuring classic 80s and 90s music alongside soft play, a craft area, licensed bar, bubble machines, Lego games with prizes and the award-winning Wannado Street Dance crew.
“DJs Get It Together spinning hip-hop, funk and soul classics, and Simon Price, the Manic Street Preachers biographer and promoter behind Brighton’s Spellbound club, are bringing an authentic 80s/90s indie flavour for parents to get down to the likes of Blur, Pulp, and Oasis with their Little Liams, knee-high Noels and cot-sized Cerys.”
The award-winning, family-friendly, inter-generational party outfit, who’ve previously sold out 1,000-capacity events in Brighton, Worthing and Lewes, is the brainchild of Dan, the man behind Tot Rockin’ Beats.
“Mums and dads can have a glass of wine or a beer and hit the dancefloor with their kids, but it’s arranged inclusively so there are activities that engage the children; it’s just that, instead of The Wheels on the Bus, we have great DJs alongside soft-play and Lego.
“It’s raving with a social conscience,” says Dan, “That’s what hip-hop was originally about when it started in the Bronx in the 1970s – music, art, dance, community – and we stick with that idea.
“In the last two years, we’ve sold out 25 different venues around Sussex, with our unique take on the mini-festival experience. We’ve featured everything from circus performers, ten-piece funk bands, virtual-reality art and a one-hundred-year-old Wurlitzer organ rising out of the stage playing a medley of David Bowie and Star Wars music.
“We are really excited to be bringing the show to the families of Chichester and showing them what three hours of DJs, a licensed bar, happy and busy kids at a fraction of the price of a childminder, can look like.”
Tickets from the Novium box office and www.totrockinbeats.com. Adults £12; kids £10; babies (non-walkers) free; seniors £6.