We’ve been hobnobbing with the local community along with pioneers of the art scene…

…So get ready for us to reveal some behind-the-scenes magic over the next few weeks.

Landscaped gardens, interactive sculptures and beautiful creative happenings are rising up from the earth, all for your delight.

We’re so excited to be revealing some new surprises and big names for you soon. Only 4,492,337 seconds to go until The Paradise Gardens family festival on the 30th of June!

We want to open our rather beautiful site to your artwork. We are looking for large-scale outdoor pieces to be showcased within the Pleasure Gardens. Your work would be exhibited in and around an overgrown brownfield site peppered with wild flowers and buddleia, set against an enormous industrial backdrop of the iconic Millennium Mills and Silo D buildings. In only a few months time we’ll have hundreds of thousands of people on site every week…

We are inviting artists and creative collectives to join us in reshaping the capitals arts landscape. This is a truly ground breaking project, a role model for future transformative use of vacant sites by creative people. So feel free to see possibilities and make them happen! We are ready to receive your ideas. Click HERE to apply.

The pieces may be interactive or purely visual spectacles, they can potentially incorporate elements of water or fire but they must be relatively durable and suitable for all weather conditions. Light sculptures and art cars are especially welcome. Your piece would be installed with our assistance and would need to be delivered by 20th June and remain on site until 12th September 2012. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to exhibit your work during the Olympic period, reaching a diverse worldwide audience of tens of thousands.

Please bear in mind that we are not currently in the position to contribute to the funding of your piece. This application is most applicable to existing art works that you would like to exhibit to a wider audience.

If you would like a piece of your work to be considered for showcasing within the London Pleasure Gardens during the Olympics, please complete the application form as thoroughly as possible.

Tickets for the stages will be released weekly from Tuesday 15 May but you can sign up here to receive alerts as tickets become available. Just click Add to Favourites, fill in your email address and you will be emailed directly with ticketing information.

This curtain-raiser for The Olympics is arguably the most ambitious musical event ever staged in the capital, presenting the city’s residents and visitors with a unique opportunity to sample a kaleidoscope of the world’s most vibrant contemporary music.

The Noisettes’ Shingai Shoniwa will lead a collaboration that draws on her Zimbabwean heritage. Artists from across Southern Africa will come together to join The Noisettes for a one-off performance. With the Noisettes new song The Winner as the inspiration behind the project, the Olympic spirit is set to take the Africa stage by storm.

“The best live band in Britain” The Guardian

“Shoniwa is everything you could wish for in a front woman – seriously stylish, dazzlingly confident and armed with a voice that can veer from vulnerability to pulverising ferocity in the flutter of a false eyelash.” The Independent

“irresistible rockabilly lilt…a triumphant wall of sound…a sophisticated pop group” The Guardian

For a full line up and all the latest info have a look-see here: http://www.btriverofmusic.com/

That’s just a tiny fraction of the mountains of material we’re using to sculpt the site into our vision for The London Pleasure Gardens.

So yes, it’s time to believe. It’s time to get excited. Something new is coming and we can’t wait to share it with you. Our thanks goes out to the many contractors we’ve taken on board recently – who are just as excited about the project as we are. Whether it’s because they are local and looking forward to seeing something happening with the area, or because they are loyal firms from the event industry that are excited to see such a unique, game-raising project happening.

As the story develops keep up to speed with our Facebook and Twitter pages – loads of new pics and videos coming soon…

The Royal Victoria Dock Bridge, built in 1998, is already a fully functioning feature:

Somewhat less spectacular, but in our view up to six times more awesome, is the new BRIDGE WITH NO NAME. It connects our site to The Excel Center – so visitors can walk from Pontoon Dock DLR Station, to The Pleasure Gardens and over the bridge to where the medals celebrations happen. THAT is going to be one memorable walk for a lot of people.

So we are excited about bridges. Two kinds in fact, literal and metaphorical because – as things take shape and we move ever closer to leaping into action – we look forward to working with the local community in Britannia Village and all across East London. There’ll be tons to be done – and a real range of jobs and opportunities on offer, particularly for young people.

Soon we will announce details of partnerships with agencies such as Newham Workplace, Green Stewards and Community Links to ensure access and opportunities are available to all. So keep reading and follow our unfolding story on Facebook and Twitter.

The Pleasure Gardens will be a unique platform for a whole host of events. Each will have it’s own tone, style, atmosphere and audience – but all will be informed by the character of the pleasure gardens.

Bloc will use a combination of custom-designed structures and stages to deliver a next-level sound and light experience making use of the permanent venues that will be at the pleasure gardens. The ‘Hub’ stage from Shangri-La for one, a 30 metre diameter geodesic dome for another – Bloc will also take advantage of the limitless versatility the venue has to offer by creating never-been-dreamed-of structures, including a vast custom-built main arena constructed from shipping containers. All the stages will be within walls and covered.

Bloc’s music will be contained within the Dome and Hub venues, both are acoustically lined to contain sound and are licensed until 6.30am. All open air music ends at 11pm and we are working closely with the event organisers to ensure that the event is a suitable celebration for local businesses, residents and our guests. More information about how the venues on the site are being built to retain noise and create a unique atmosphere for visitors is coming to this website soon.

There’s much more news coming about our program of events, so keep dialed in, spread the word and follow our unfolding story on Facebook, Twitter and this very blog.

Bloc website: http://www.blocweekend.com/
Bloc on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/blocwknd
Bloc on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BLOCwknd

We have perhaps the only intact population of the little critters in the UK on our site and we are going to re-house them before the festivities begin. Many thanks to the volunteers from Bug Life who are helping us with this undertaking, we are proud to be doing the right thing for this indigenous tribe.

The Sunday Times:

The NME:

London’s Pleasure Gardens:
Where high art and sub-culture meet, collaborate and mutate

• An entertainment destination for Londoners and tourists alike, focused on community, culture and entertainment

• A new 60,000m2 site with capacity for 40,000 people

London’s Pleasure Gardens (LPG), a major new arts and entertainment destination in the heart of East London, will open on the Queen’s Jubilee Weekend, 1 June 2012.

Starting next June, LPG will champion the creativity that helped London win the Olympic bid; it will become home to London’s creative talent and showcase great British talent to the world.

For 200 years Pleasure Gardens, with their twinkling lights and otherworldly atmosphere, were central to London social life. Long before the festivals of today, they were places where people converged to meet, debate, listen to music, watch shows, admire paintings, walk, drink, and flirt. From Keats and Hogarth to Mozart and Handel, Pleasure Gardens were the go-to places for cutting edge culture and subversive creativity.

LPG will recreate this festival atmosphere as an ever-evolving creative playground for both young and old alike. You might walk your dog at dawn, take the kids to play mid-morning, meet friends for lunch, treat it as a gallery visit in the afternoon, meet after work for a cocktail, or catch a gig from a world-class band under the stars at night.

Depending on what day, and what time of day you choose to visit, LPG will offer something for everyone; from local community to London and international tourists, from high art to sub-culture and entertainment.

Winner of the Mayor of London and Newham Council’s ‘Meanwhile London’ Competition, LPG will be London’s newest cultural destination, with three stated aims;

1. Community; to help kick-start the regeneration of the Royal Docks; creating jobs and a community hub for the surrounding Boroughs in 2012 and beyond

2. Culture; to celebrate the rich diversity of high art and cutting edge culture that East London is famous for.

3. Entertainment; to support the cultural legacy of London 2012 through the provision of a multi-functional entertainment destination for all the family.

A 60,000m2 site within the Olympic Red Zone, opposite the London ExCel Centre, LPG will transform Pontoon Dock from its current state as a derelict site to an ever-evolving creative playground for both resident Londoners and tourists alike.

On announcing LPG at MIPIM on 8 March 2011, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London commented; “ These winning ideas will bring the sites to life and help the Royal Docks become a thriving new economic hub for the capital…With the eyes of the world on London in 2012, the ingenuity of these schemes will show the world just what the Royal Docks have to offer businesses, entrepreneurs and visitors.”

Clive Dutton, Executive Director for Regeneration, Planning and Property at Newham Council commented; “The London Pleasure Gardens concept is brilliant and will bring extraordinary creativity and vitality to the Royal Docks. It is a significant stride towards making this part of London an international destination, both in the Olympic year and beyond. It will become a spark to ignite the Meanwhile London project not only across Newham but as a national sign of what creative people can contribute to a community when given half a chance and plenty of encouragement”.

The history of the area shows that the Royal Docks itself had its own Pleasure Gardens between 1851 and 1884. It was collective cultural experiences such as these that made this period in London’s history famed for its pioneering social and creative spirit.

The winning team behind LPG has a history of mixing cultural disciplines to create unique and influential events. Amongst others, they have delivered major arts projects including the 1948 Hoxton Street Party, Liverpool Biennale, Shangri-La at Glastonbury, Cordy House, Mutate Britain and many more (see Editors’ Notes).

Deborah Armstrong, Creative Director at LPG commented; “Our aim is to help London to deliver on the promise to use the Olympics as a chance to showcase British cultural, as well as sporting, talent on a global platform. We will champion local talent and celebrate the incredible melting pot of creativity that is alive and kicking in London every day.

“London’s Pleasure Gardens will bring together real talents across music, art, food, fashion and film, give them a spiritual and physical home, whilst showcasing the very best of London’s creative communities to the world.”

A three-year project, London’s Pleasure Gardens has already secured funding to deliver on its cultural vision for 2012 and beyond.

Major community, cultural and commercial partners have already signed up, with more to be announced in the coming weeks and months.

Current partners include;
• London Development Agency (LDA)
• Create (London 2012 cultural liaison for the five host Olympic Boroughs)
• Design for London (part of the Mayor of London’s office)
• The Arts Council
• Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

LPG will feature:
• Landscaped walkways and sculpture gardens
• The wilderness meadow and beach
• Water attractions including floating cinema and illuminated fountains
• A 36,000m2 outdoor live events space
• A multi-arts dome venue
• The Hub night gallery and dance arena
• A floating cocktail lounge and bridge of boats
• A boutique art hotel and restaurant
• A glass café (designed by RIBA)
• Outdoor spectaculars, including fireworks
• Video mapping and large scale video game projections
• Animation performance
• Interactive installations
• Children climbing area
• Adults playground
• And much, much more…!

During the Olympic and Paralympic Games next year, a festival atmosphere will prevail, with 40,000 people a day channeled directly onto the site after leaving events and award ceremonies at ExCel London.

The Pleasure Gardens became immortalised by the finest artists, composers and novelists of the day – London’s Pleasure Gardens will replicate that excitement of discovery for both Londoners and visitors to London in 2012 and beyond.