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Join Us at the Showman’s Show!

We are excited to announce that we’ll be exhibiting at this year’s Showman’s Show at Newbury Showground, where you can ask us all your questions about Play The Rig.

Play The Rig is a hands-on experience that combines music, creativity, and sustainability – a unique upcycled percussion installation designed for family days and events! ????

Made from repurposed every day and vintage materials, this interactive installation allows participants of all ages to explore the world of rhythm and sound while highlighting the importance of recycling and upcycling.

Whether you’re an event organiser, a family entertainment specialist, or anything in between, come and have a chat with Amy and Jess who will answer all of your questions about our installation of musical curiosities. We’ll be bringing some of our Rigs along so you can have a play, and visualise how we can bring something a bit different to your event.????✨
???? Dates: 23rd and 24th October
???? Location: Newbury Showground, Avenue C Stand #187

Sign up to the Showman’s Show via the link below:
https://eventdata.uk/Visitor/ShowmanShow2024.aspx

Rhythm of Summer

What an incredible summer it has been! Play the Rig brought its upcycled musical playground to festivals and family days across the country, and the response was phenomenal! From the fields of Camp Bestival to the bustling heart of Southbank Centre, we were thrilled to see people of all ages discover the magic of making music together—using recycled materials, creativity, and a little bit of fun!

Here’s a look back at where Play the Rig was this summer:

???? Big Church Festival
We started our summer season at Big Church Festival, bringing a joyful noise to the celebration. Hundreds of participants—young and old—experimented with sounds, rhythms, and melodies in a vibrant, interactive experience that added even more harmony to the festival’s spirit.

???? Godiva Festival
At Godiva Festival, we joined the fun of their “world” theme giving a space for festival-goers to create music and make their own upcycled instruments within this theme.

???? Camp Bestival Dorset & Shropshire
We hit two amazing editions of Camp Bestival, first in Dorset which we had the joy of attending last year, and then Shropshire for our first time! Festival-goers couldn’t resist our hands-on, eco-friendly music installation in this family specific festival.

???? Southbank Centre
The iconic Southbank Centre was the perfect setting for Play the Rig to turn heads and spark creativity. Visitors enjoyed exploring new ways to make music, as we set our up our beautiful Rigs and arts and crafts zone in the atrium of one of London’s most celebrated cultural spaces.

????️ Chrisp Street Market
Bringing Play the Rig to Chrisp Street Market wrapped up our incredible season and was a delightful urban experience! We set up our upcycled musical playground in the middle of the bustling centre, engaging local families, shoppers, and curious onlookers alike, turning an ordinary day into a lively community celebration.
Thank You for Playing the Rig!
We are deeply grateful to everyone who played, danced, and shared in the joy of our upcycled musical playground. Your enthusiasm for creativity and sustainability made every festival unforgettable.

Stay tuned for more exciting events coming soon! We’re already planning our next adventure, and we can’t wait to see you again.

Follow us: @playtherig

What are we up to at The Rig currently?

Hi Riggers!

We’ve had some beautiful, sunny summer days recently and we often find ourselves looking at the clear blue sky and dreaming about being in a field with The Rig somewhere. Normally, this is our busiest time of year for music festivals and family days and we love travelling around the country to different cultural events, taking The Rig with us for you all to try.

Alas, it was not meant to be this year.

We want to take the opportunity to send our good vibes to you all, hoping you are all happy and safe and smiling through the difficult times.

Although many of the festivals for 2020 have been cancelled/postponed and we can’t get the Rig to you in person, we’ve been doing lots of virtual bits and bobs to make sure we are still reaching you all in this time with some music fun!

So what have we been doing?

The Rig Play Zone on YouTube

We have created a new playlist on our @playtherig YouTube channel called The Rig Play Zone where we have added lots of “how to” videos and fun musical games. These include:

We’ve got ideas on there for fun musical games and also educational videos about some of the BBC Ten pieces and composers to keep the kids entertained.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you get alerts when we post new videos.

How-to videos on Facebook and Instagram

We’ve also created lots of one minute How-to videos that we’ve posted on our social media platforms. Like you, we’ve been staying at home and have been looking around our houses to see what we can make using bits and bobs we’ve found at home. So far this has included:

  • musical water jars
  • plastic bottle boom whackers
  • bits-and-bobs shakers
  • oven tray headphones
  • guitar tupperware

Who knew you could make so much from your recycling bin?!

 

Rig Memories on Facebook

As we can’t get to festivals ourselves, we’re going to bring the festival to YOU!

We’ve created a Rig Memories playlist on Facebook which features some of our favourite moments at the Rig.

  • See what The Rig is like in action
  • Reminisce on an event you saw The Rig at
  • Get a feel-good vibe seeing so many smiley faces!

Make sure to like/follow our Facebook and Instagram pages to see these videos when they get released. 

 

And finally, just a reminder of what we normally look like and the fun we have…!

Summer fun for The Rig

We have had the most incredible summer! Here’s what we’ve been up to…

Festivals and Family Days

The summer kicked off with two brilliant family days- the Crawley Festival on 28th June and the Village Green Festival on 13th July.

We then went to WOMAD at the end of July – which has been a firm fixture in The Rig calendar for the last 5 years – and set up camp in the kids field. As usual there were some amazing outfits – check out the octopus playing the Pixie Rig!

We were also at the Smithfield Street Party on August bank holiday and finished our summer festival season of at the End of the Road festival at Larmer Tree Gardens.

Rig Makeover

We were very thankful to get funding from Arts Council England for some of our projects this summer which has included giving the Rig a little makeover! Amy and Marianne took a couple of days in August to add some additions to the Rig and make it look sparkly again!

Great Ormond Street Hospital

A summer highlight was spending the day with the patients and families at Great Ormond Street Hospital. We made shakers and explored the Rig… and a very cute family of mice was even made!

What’s next?

Keep your eyes peeled for our next Rig adventures. Our next event is 5th and 6th October 2019 at English Heritage site Wrest Park where we will be set up alongside a food festival!

You can keep up to date via the events listing on our website and via our various social media platforms.

https://www.facebook.com/PlayTheRig/