Introducing: Elliot Furlong

Hi, my name is Elliott. I am part of the Young Promoters programme, supported by Youth Music and Talent Accelerator here at the De La Warr Pavilion. I’m also an aspiring musician and frontman/guitarist of a band called The Tellums.

I joined DLWP in November because I wanted to be involved in something creative. Originally I applied for the Marketing Coordinator Apprenticeship role. Unfortunately I didn’t get that role, but through the interview process got to know Sally, Kim and Luke, who put me in touch with Artswork.

Artswork is an external company that puts creative people in creative workplaces. So instead of the original role I’d applied for, I was able to find a placement position through them.

They gave me a month of training on general working life, like how to be in the workplace, working on social skills, how to respond to emails formally. Kind of just general beginner job stuff. It was all very useful, and all on Zoom. Then I was put into my placement at the start of November.

To begin with, I was the Creative Admin Assistant, working with the Learning and Participation department. I responded to email correspondence, created and printed resources and helped set up workshops. But in January my role progressed and I was asked if I wanted to help out with the gallery turnaround. I flourish in a practical environment, so I said yes, and I was with them for the next month to help install the new exhibition. But still doing some Learning stuff here and there.

I’m really enjoying my work at the De La Warr. I like that there’s something different to do every day. I can actually walk in some days and not necessarily know what’s coming, which is exciting. Like one day I ended up in Eastbourne – got a text in the morning, ‘do you want to go to Eastbourne today?’ And I said ‘yeah, sure’. It can be very spontaneous, which I like.

That’s how I came to join the Young Promoters programme. I attended one of the Industry Talks held at the Grove theatre, Eastbourne in November, and at the end of the event was offered the opportunity to apply to become a Young Promoter.

It’s a great initiative and although I’ve come into it later than some of the others (most people already have 1 or 2 gigs to under their belt) it doesn’t feel competitive or pressured. I got paired with a mentor early on, and we’ve been working on how to promote gigs with my band, the best way to develop our following and how to get the most out of the time we have together. We’ve written a whole plan for 2024 and already been in the studio because of that. All very exciting stuff!

I recently put on a gig at The Printworks in Hastings that was met with a lot of enthusiasm. We had a really great turnout of people all coming out to support local music from talented upcoming bands. Our main aim is putting local music at the forefront and I felt we did that well. I hope to continue this trend moving forward. We are looking to book more gigs with many more venues around Hastings and the surrounding area – the next key date being the 6th of April at The Printworks!

I’m really cherishing the opportunity to work with a mentor and to learn more about what it takes to be a promoter and lead a team. Kate has really helped me to understand the areas I should be focusing on. I feel that this programme pointing me in the right direction to get my music career started. I’m really grateful that I am a part of it and I am really looking forward to the future!

In Memory of Ken Rogers: ‘Life, Creativity and Community’

The Pavilion is a special place, defined by the unique relationships that we have with individuals in our community. People share stories of dancing on our terrace, savouring sea views from our Cafe, performing on our stage and celebrating special moments at DLWP.

We were recently contacted by Kathryn Rogers, whose father Ken had a special relationship with the Pavilion throughout his life. She told us how Ken acted in several plays at the De La Warr and spent time there with his family, visiting exhibitions, watching theatre and enjoying the cafe;

“The De La Warr holds a lot of memories for our family and is a very special place to us. Dad acted in several plays there. We visited exhibitions and theatre together over many years. And we enjoyed cake and fish and chips in the cafe, looking out to sea. The last nine years of Dad’s life were incredibly difficult, after he suffered a stroke and a catastrophic brain hemorrhage; the De La Warr continued to provide Dad and all of us with a space to spend time together as a family. Dad was a lovely and positive person and we wanted to honour his memory by supporting a charity that celebrates life and creativity and values community and bringing people together. The De La Warr is the perfect place for us to spend time and remember Dad and we are so pleased to have been able to raise funds in Dad’s memory to support your work.”

Ken in character as ‘Edward’ in Sparrows, by Charles Mander. He was part of a local amateur dramatics group called the Albany Players who regularly performed at DLWP.

When Ken passed away in March 2022, his family decided to raise funds in his memory to support the Pavilion, ensuring that we can continue to be a place of life, celebration and joy for people in years to come.

We’re incredibly grateful to Kathryn, her family, and her friends, for their generosity.

If you would like to fundraise in support of the Pavilion, you can do so using our JustGiving page.

 

 

A day at the farm with the DLWP Kitchen team

Head Chef Ryan and Junior Sous Chef Kundai’s summer salad bar is going down a treat with our visitors. They set off to explore the source of DLWP Cafe Bar &  Kitchen’s fresh ingredients.

Ryan writes:

“With the launch of our salad bar recently, we thought it would be a great opportunity to go and see where some of our fruit and vegetable products are coming from.

We work closely with our greengrocer, Jay Carroll, who runs Carrolls greengrocers in Sidley. It’s a family run business and the trade can be traced back in the family for well over 100 years. So on Monday, Jay took Kundai, and myself out to a couple of the local farms where our products are being harvested.

We started out by visiting Lidija at Very Berry Farm in Ninfield.  Lidija, with a fashion background including working for Alexander McQueen,  was not what I was expecting from a lady who has owned a farm for eight years !   It goes without saying from the name of her farm that Lidija’s harvest is mainly berries with about 50kgs of berries a week sol .  Jay takes a stock of her berries up to Covent Garden Market when he travels up there,  which means there isn’t an  extra journey’s carbon footprint.

Lidija has a natural spring on the farm which flows through and supplies her with the water she needs,  as well as saving her a pretty hefty water bill. What I found the most remarkable about the farm is the fact that she uses absolutely no pesticides whatsoever. She has found ways around them by using natural alternatives like seaweed and, even more interestingly, wasps! She brought a shipment of wasps in years ago that are now basically part of the farm family. They have settled in and are keeping the pests at bay so that no chemicals are needed.

                         

We went on to the Greenway Fruit Farm in Herstmonceux  and met the instantly likeable Graham, who runs the farm there and a man who is clearly very passionate about his trade and has lots of character. The farm has been in his family since 1951 and,  from what he was saying, he has been working on it since not long after he was born! Graham  introduced allotments for the village around ten years ago which seem to be thriving and a great example of local people working together. In a similar way to Lidija’s berry farm, there is a lake on the farm from which the water is used for irrigating the crops.

Asparagus has played a big part on our menu in recent weeks during its peak season and it has all come from this farm. The asparagus season is ending now but the apples, pears, plums and apricots are coming on beautifully. I have no doubt they will be introduced to our menu as the summer rolls into the autumn.

Kundai and myself found it very eye opening to visit the ground where our fruit and vegetables are being picked and pulled. As chefs, we thrive on inspiration and there was plenty of that today. In current times, with more and more people interested in  vegetable and plant based diets, it is an exciting challenge for us in the kitchen to keep coming up with ideas to suit everyone’s needs. Our salad bar which runs from Friday to Monday is a great way to show you what inspires us.”

Meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan options are freshly made and available at the DLWP salad bar from 12 noon – 3pm, Friday to Monday. Come in to give it a taste or browse our summer lunch menu here.

                                

Work experience with DLWP

Last week, the Pavilion’s work experience programme introduced more students to life working in the creative industries. Jamie and Mia joined the DLWP team and got stuck in to five days of stewarding, catering, media and communications, events planning and, everyone’s favourite, lighting and sound.

The pair were kind enough to leave a glowing review of their time with us, which you can read below. Thanks again to Jamie and Mia for all their help!

If your child is entering Year 1o this September and their school supports a week of work experience, contact grace.clements@dlwp.com to discuss work experience at the Pavilion for 2020.

Jamie

 

Mia