At 1pm on New Street, a community art project exhibition was opened using the window space of a closed-down estate agents. The windows are filled with tiny white, anonymous, identical cardboard house. Inside each, and visible through the doors, are the words and pictures of Lancaster people about the city, their thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams for its future. Out of the wreckage of the housing market, a new space to dream. Ribbon-cutting and Cava bubbly flowed!!  http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/2009/06/carnival-of-culture-launches-art.html
In the evening, beginning at 7.30pm at Alfred St car-park (part of the land blighted by the prospect of the development, a free street games kicked off: Journey To The End Of The Night. The description before the event described the atmosphere:
“The city spreads out before you. Rushing from point to point, lit by slow strobe lights through dark streets. Stumbling into situations for a stranger’s signature. Fleeing unknown pursuers, breathing hard, admiring the landscape and the multitude of worlds hidden in it.
For one night, drop your relations, your work and leisure activities, and all your usual motives for movement and action, and let yourself be drawn by the attractions of the chase and the encounters you find there.
Journey to the End of the Night is a race through the streets of Lancaster. You will try to make it to six checkpoints as fast as you can, while avoiding being caught by chasers. Those who survive will be praised and feted at the end. Those who fall will become chasers themselves, rising to pursue their former friends and allies.
Only your own two feet are allowed. No bicycles, no skates, no cars, no taxis. This race is for you, your fellow players, and our city!”
See  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiwfBT_k9c8 for a slideshow from this event, set to CRASS!
The players were chased through the city by three chasers (including the masked Viking and Caro of the Garden), and if caught, became chasers too. This was the fate of many participants as the evening progressed! Safe areas were established around the checkpoints and along the canal tow-path. The first clue given to players as they set off was:
“Opposite Vicky's stony glare,
A two-faced man is lurking there
Trying to dodge an important issue,
Look behind him to find a clue.”
On the Town Hall steps (opposite our delightful Trumptonesque statue of Queen Victoria), a developer with two faces was trying to hide his plans for the city behind his back. On being questioned he revealed the next clue:
“If you get to the Storey, you've gone too far.
Backtrack a little and you'll find a bar.
Beneath the arches of this cave-like place,
A fat cat and a councillor come face to face.”
This lead the players to the Merchants pub, just short of the newly revamped Storey Institute, an art gallery and workshop space. In the wine cellars of the Merchants, one of the oldest pub buildings in Lancaster (and up for sale for redevelopment?), the players found a fat cat and a councillor deep in dodgy deals, discussing sweeteners (perhaps like the money offered to the Grand and the Dukes by Centros? Or the offer of an empty retail box to the 30-year old Co-op?). Their clue was revealed:
“However many notes cross my hand
You won't get this development without a plan
Fat cat: Where do I take it when I've drawn it out?
Councillor: To the man in black near the roundabout”
This led players to the Pointer roundabout (Lancaster’s only roundabout, unless you count the one out on the end of the hopefully-abandoned Heysham bypass, a destructive road to take lorries from the motorway toHeysham). Nearby, in one of Lancaster’s wonderful high-ceilinged Victorian Terraces, a Gothondoor beckoned people to an old style planner behind his desk, and players had to draw out their own plans for the city. The prize-winning plans included two wind farms (there are two wind farms planned for the district), a chocolate fountain, and an underground system of free party tunnels (now there’s an idea!). Of course, the planner refused anything that didn’t include at least 90% retail development and yuppy flats. The next clue was:
“Don't give up - you've come this far,
You need to join with others - become more than you are.
Swamp the community school down Willow Lane
There are others there that support your aim”
Waiting at the Steiner School were “activists”, fancy dress clothes (donated and swapped at the end), banner and placard material, and shaker-makers. Players in teams had to create their own campaign slogans and set off with their own mini-carnival-protest campaign.

“Together you must go in a great big procession
Make a song and dance to show your opposition
In streets near the fountain are musicians and singers
Listen carefully to find the next part of your mission”
In and around Lancaster’s Georgian Market Square (with the now-defunct fountain, donated by Heysham nuclear power-station and opened by ole big ears himself (King Charles III), switched off years ago because teenagers ith food dye an fairy liquid enjoyed space hijacking a little too much, too often) were about 20 performers in 6 different groups, each with a stamp for the players’ cards. A group of about 10 drummers had come fro Blackpool to make a joyful noise. A stilt-alien paraded around, a singer-songwriter performed, jugglers and diablos were swamping the fountain, Balkan subversions of Kraftwerk on cello, fiddle and dharbuka round the corner. After collecting all their stamps to spell out “CENTROS”, the players were told:
“Where the gardens of Lancaster are one hundred feet
And the Lakeland roads all do meet
That is where the case will be appealed
Find the judge who is outstanding in his field"
The first part refers to the Freehold area, where our small-minded Victorian forebears created terraced housing for freehold, with hundred-foot long gardens. Hmmmm, social/community housing? How quaint. The Streets are named after the Lakes, and hidden amongst them is “Miss Whalley’s Field”, an open space used for community bonfire/firework night. Here a judge (a little worse for wear at this stage in the proceedings) listened to the remaining players’ arguments against shops and for proper community-centred development. He responded:
“I have heard testimony from far and near
But the outcome of this case is still unclear
Go upstairs at Henry’s for the final deliberation
After that, you can have a libation!”
Still unclear? Well, the Public Inquiry begins tomorrow at 9.30 at Lancaster Town Hall, and is expected to last for 3 weeks. Opponents have a couple of days to put their cases against. The opposition include English Heritage, Lancaster campaign group It's Our City, Save Britain's Heritage, the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Allied Lancaster Ltd, who own Marketgate (a not-very-pretty shopping development itself, but if a new alternative city centre gets built, ALL local shops in the city will suffer, especially the smaller independent ones). Centros themselves are not turning up to defend their plans, and the council is blowing up to £100 grand of council tax payers’ money to defend their decision against the people who elected them.
”Henry’s” refers to the Gregson Community Centre, established by Henry Gregson (another quaint Victorian patron) and revived decades ago. It is now a community centre and bar, gig and performance venue, run by a charity and hosting a chippy! Ere the players chilled and danced, prizes were awarded (the fastest player was a triathlete!), and the thirty-plus people who helped run the games could also unwind.
Locals wishing to register their intention to speak in the Public Inquiry (at some point leter in the next 3 weeks), should email brianmaiden (at) riseup (dot) net with name and address, or turn up at the Town Hal at 9.30am TOMORROW. It’s Our City have a website detailing the many valid planning objections to Centros’ original plans.  http://www.itsourcity.org.uk/
Consumer Conformism or Creative Community?
Carnival Clowns or Clone City?
It’s your choice.