The 'Back The Bowl' campaign has successfully raised enough funds to renovate the iconic Crystal Palace Bowl performance stage in South London.
The Crystal Palace Bowl is an iconic outdoor live performance venue in South London. The Bowl was first established in 1961 and has a history of hosting numerous iconic live music performances, including Bob Marley's final gig in London before he passed in 1981.
For almost a decade now the bowl based in Crystal Palace park has been out of action and as it stands today, the stage is rusted and need of some serious TLC. In recent years the stage has popularly picked up the nickname 'The Rusty Laptop' for its appearance.
In light of this, a campaign was set up by the Crystal Palace Park Trust, named 'Back The Bowl' which set out to restore the Crystal Palace bowl and bring the stage back to life. The campaign set out to raise £55,000 to pay for the costs of renovation in order to "create a new community focussed space in the park and enable live music and performance to return."
Up until this week the community led campaign had already raised a total of £50,000 through crowdfunded donations but an exciting advancement involving City Hall means the campaign has now exceeded it's initial goal. It was announced that the Mayor pledged an £18,000 grant to help the #backthebowl project as part of the 'Make London' fund which sets out to "support creative, locally-led proposals which bring people together, improve public spaces and support community hubs and high streets."
However, the campaign team are still encouraging those who want to make a donation to do so whether it be big or small as it "will continue to make a huge difference and help us undertake more essential refurbishments to the back-of-house facilities."
It's no shock that many of us are itching for when we can go out and safely watch live music again and the news of the Crystal Palace Bowl stage re-opening simply adds another layer of excitement, particularly for local residents. The bowl stage boasts such a rich heritage as an entertainment venue, having seen stars such as The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Bob Marley and many more perform there over the years, making the restoration of the venue even more special and a great step in the right direction for revitalising music performance spaces in South London.
Click here to visit the #backthebowl Crowdfunder page for donations and more information.