Spooky tales launch festival fundraising drive

On a dark and gloomy night around 50 hardy souls assembled to help ward off the threat of a nightmare yet to come: Frightful Yarns, held on Hallowe’en, was the first in a planned series of fundraising events aimed at staving off the wolves and steering our collectively cherished community festival back towards calmer shores.

Hosted by writer Paul Batterham, the evening at The Honor Oak saw seven talented local storytellers regale a rapt audience with the spookiest of tales. Several of the stories were set in local settings and took their inspiration from local legends and blogs. Tireless moderator for ILoveSE4 Ian Richardson is also an actor and performer, hence the title of his story ‘Of All The Gin Joints’ while short story writer and former teacher scared some of us witless with his tale of a social media grudge that spills out onto the mean streets of Brockley and Ladywell. A cautionary tale indeed!

Arachne Press‘ Cherry Potts gave us two scary tales, acting out The Red Dress in rather too gruesome detail, while novelist and film-maker Mark Bowsher’s The Boy Who Stole Time introduced us to a heart-breaking pact.

We also got the chills from first-time performer Neil Lawrence’s unnerving narration of seemingly real-life events in Flowers and from the strange goings on in the possibly haunted house host Paul described. All in all, a fantastic event which helped kick off the #savebrockleymax campaign in style.

For more details of how to support Brockley Max and help us fund next year’s festival click here.