Well, it's done now. Twelve short weeks of planning, devising and creating and the weekend event called re:bourne is now history. Or not...plenty of the installations and performances elicited creative, tangible feedback from audiences that is being collated and kept and may appear again in not too long, whether through exhibitions or otherwise (watch this space...) And keep an eye on the re:bourne website plus our site and that of our partners, Workers of Art, for plenty of photos and videos of the event.

Days before re:bourne happened someone asked the question, 'Why Sittingbourne?' As in, 'Why put all of this energy and creativity into an event here, rather than somewhere else?' A simple question on its surface, but there's a subtext, isn't there? The question is really, 'Why put all of this energy and creativity into a community with no experience of this kind of arts experience...and which is unlikely to understand it, let alone appreciate it?'

The answer to both questions is the same: Why not Sittingbourne? Why always London or Brighton or Canterbury? What intrinsic cultural advantages do audiences in those communities have over people in and around Sittingbourne, other than more regular exposure to interesting, engaging creative work? In which case, a vicious circle ensues: if one assumes that folks in the sticks won't ever 'get' ambitious arts-led events, no one will bother to offer them. If they're never offered...

But if nothing else, we think re:bourne has proven our case, not that of the cynics. We were told again and again that re:bourne should be taken as an experiment and that we shouldn't be disheartened if our largely local audience didn't get it, or were even hostile to what was on offer. Kind words meant here, but for us, missing the point. As demonstrated by the following sentiment, scrawled by a re:bourne audience member as part of an interactive installation, our re:bourne audiences did 'get it'. They engaged fully in re:bourne, whether through something wonderfully simple like underwater UV body-painting (wait for the photos!) or through more abstract film and audio installations. Did everyone get it? Probably not. But not everyone gets what they experience at the Edinburgh Fringe or other high-profile, like-themed happenings (it's just that fewer are ready to admit it).

Thanks to everyone who helped us make re:bourne happen. There's a huge list of people involved so we won't bang on here, but suffice to say that along with artists, officials, funders, and production crew, the people of Sittingbourne deserve our thanks as much as anyone. They gave shape to re:bourne. It's their triumph as much as ours.

...but not torrential like re:bourne Day 1 when we wouldn't have been shocked to see Noah and his ark floating down the high street.

High street shaping up...

One of our favourite local traders actually made this re:bourne-themed display as their way of celebrating the event...brilliant!

Sent from my iPhone

...and here's the high street. Tranquil.

Sent from my iPhone

...something exciting will blossom today in sittingbourne! Join us between 2:30 and 5:30 and see for yourself.

We think that re:bourne is the future of the community festival in England. It's fiercely local but open to new ideas from outsiders (like us). It applies creative thinking across a variety of art forms--theatre, visual art, film, music, more--to otherwise ordinary spaces. It takes as its foundation community pride and history, but looks towards the future. It is calibrated for its audience but doesn't condescend to them.

No, Sam isn't rehearsing for an upcoming Nimble Fish melodrama; it's merely her exaggerated exhaustion from bleach-cleaning walls in one of our re:bourne event spaces (the shadows are because there's no power inside the space so we have to jury-rig power and lighting from elsewhere).

If many of these blog entries seem unduly concerned with the nuts and bolts of process and prep--as opposed to declaiming about the artistic product--it's probably because re:bourne lives or dies on seemingly small things like whether or not a shop that hasn't had an occupant in at least 5 years can be made decent enough for art to occur there. The time and energy this can take, and the importance of spending both, is only learned through experience.

When it comes to working like this--that is, the renovation/ preparation of non-traditional art and performance spaces in high- traffic areas (not abandoned warehouses and suchlike)--we must surely be industry leaders by now, if such an industry exists. And disinfecting shops is all into the bargain.

...at least 'til the end of Saturday (because you see, oh great rain- making mysteries, we re:bourne folks would be rather unhappy were you to come on, say, Friday and decide to stick around. Nothing personal: its not you, its us. Hope you understand, glad to talk it through, we're still friends, right? Right?)