24 July 2018

Tilbury was in a party mood on Saturday 21 July when carnival dancers led the Tilbury Docker puppet to the Tilbury Cruise Terminal for dancing, singing and a community feast.
Kinetika, the renowned outdoor arts company based in Purfleet, and the Tilbury on the Thames Trust hosted the pop up performance and meal for 200 diners with Teatro Container from Chile. Teatro Container brought their pop up kitchen: La Cocina Pública to the UK for the first time for the event at Tilbury .

La Cocina Pública is a mobile kitchen built inside a shipping container. Teatro Container use this as a backdrop to a performance about being washed up on a foreign shore looking for food. Under a canopy of colourful clothing, Teatro Container served up a three course meal including salsa, roast beef, new potatoes and bread pudding to the audience of 200 visitors to the Port Open Day and walkers from Kinetika’s T100 Recipes walking festival.

The penultimate T100 Recipes walk on Saturday was a procession from Tilbury Town Station to the Port, accompanied by the Tilbury Docker and colourful carnival dancers from Elite Dance Academy and BB’s Dance Academy. On arrival at the Cruise Terminal, the dancers performed a colourful routine watched by the Mayor Cllr Barbara Rice and Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price before the Teatro Container performance and feast.

Peter Ward, Commercial Director at the Port of Tilbury said: “It was a fantastic experience for everyone who went along to the Teatro Container for the community feast at the weekend. The atmosphere they created was unique and there is something very special about hundreds of people eating and socialising together in one place. It was great to have this as part of the Port Open day, which has been a great success again this year.”

Kinetika’s Creative Director Ali Pretty said ‘It was a wonderful feeling to jump up with the Tilbury Docker and the dancers from the Elite and Brook Academies through the streets of Tilbury, so many people came out to join us on our journey down to The Cruise Terminal. I got a true sense that the spirit of carnival can return again to Thurrock.‘

Kinetika plan to stage a similar community event in Thurrock next year. To find out more about Kinetika’s work and keep up to date with future plans, please go to www.kinetika.co.uk or follow Kinetika on facebook, twitter or Instagram.