The meaning behind our First Friday Event

On Friday 2 October, 2020, we had our very first First Friday event. Every month we plan to have an evening experience filled with shopping, performance, food, beverages and alcohol. We also give each night an appropriate theme as we want to keep our store fresh, lively and full of creative spirit.

For our first event, we chose the theme "In Lockdown, we created". We came upon this theme as we wanted to highlight human innovation and the things that our community has achieved despite being locked down and all the other hardships of 2020. First Fridays to us are a celebration and a gift to our community (entrance is always FREE). This first event was so meaningful to us as our business launched in the midst of lockdown and we wanted to celebrate our personal achievements of overcoming the "bad weather".

Throughout the night, clients enjoyed gin and wine, lemonade and coffee beverages from our drink vendors, and delicious Mexican and Thai food from our talented food vendors.

The evening was also filled with beautiful sharing of art by four artists:

To start the night off, Pralene Mahabir began with some poetry reflecting her experience of lockdown during the Easter weekend. She spoke words that told the story of how she was able to find hope and inner peace during a very dark, tumultuous time in the world.

We then witness a beautiful dance piece entitled Navigating the Journey by flutist Lulutho Ngcongolo and dance Vuyo Mahashe. In this work of art, the two men tackled the issue of toxic masculinity through artful movement.

Next, I, was able to sing and spoke about my experience creating a YouTube channel Jade Garisch Music (please feel free to give it a listen and subscribe if you enjoy my stuff) during lockdown. This was a very emotional, fulfilling and fun set for me and I was so thankful to everyone who came out to support my music.

After my set, producer/musician Skill played an amazing set that filled the room with beats and reflected on his experience living in Ireland.

All in all, it was an amazing night; a success for our business, community and general ethos. Join us on the 6 November 2020 for our next First Friday: Raising the Bar.