Wave Café Pops-Up at Jacksons Lane
Local community group Wave for Change opened its first Pop-up Café at Jacksons Lane on Monday night. It was a hit with the local community, completely selling out of tickets online a whole week before the event!
Wave Café is a new concept designed to bring people with and without learning disabilities together to help build a truly inclusive community. Their pop-up cafés, happening monthly around the borough, aim to offer exciting arts experiences unifying people from all walks of life.
A few weeks before the event, Wave decided to hold a get together with their users at Jacksons Lane where plans were drawn up in preparation for their first event.
On entry guests swapped their tickets for a fruity mocktail and were given a run-down of the evening’s schedule by friendly volunteers. The event was hosted by Ian Hardie of Wave and was based around ‘new beginnings’ with healthy Mediterranean food options on offer to tie in with the theme.
Live entertainment kept the evening buzzing with excitement; guests were treated to a juggling spectacle from circus artist Kaveh Rahnama who was assisted by Wave club member Jess, and the silky vocals of local talent Darcey provided a backdrop of fresh new music later that evening.
As well as great food, drink and music (not to mention exceptional company) there were lots of enjoyable activities to get stuck into at the pop-up. Francesca from The London Loom kept fingers busy with a giant handmade loom stationed near the bar, encouraging passers-by to take a strip of bright fabric and add to the technicolour creation that was slowly growing with each new weaver.
One of the most popular activities of the night was the ridiculously tempting #tweetsforsweets game that facilitated lots of conversation and fun between guests. Wave member, Toby, ran a stand of free bite-sized chocolate brownies. However, in order to actually get your hands on one guests had to tweet a picture of themselves with a person at the event they didn’t know! It was good fun and throughout the pop-up the foyer screen, which was linked-up to the twitter hashtag, flooded with the photos of cheerful pairs who were strangers to each other only moments before.
At around 9.20pm Ian returned to the stage to wrap up the celebrations, promising an elated crowd just as much creative recreation at Wave's next pop-up café.
Be sure to check out the next Wave Café pop-up at Feast, Muswell Hill on Tuesday 25th April. Tickets available here.
Wave Café is a social enterprise set up to bring people with and without learning disabilities together and to help build a truly inclusive community
The project was initiated by Wave for Change, a local community group created in 2009. Wave already runs a weekly playgroup for parents of babies with additional needs, a social group for young adults and inclusive church services.
