In 2014 Thurrock Council worked with Dr William Bird and Beat the Street encouraging local residents to walk a 25,000-mile journey, over six weeks.
Debbie Maynard, head of Public Health invited Kinetika to build a legacy and create a festival to raise awareness of the places people could walk in Thurrock.
The aim of Thurrock 100 was to walk 10 miles a day for 10 days continuously, geographically taking in the whole borough. Working with Thurrock CVS and 19 community hubs, local people devised a list of places that highlighted the rich diversity of Thurrock’s landscape and its strategically important position along the Thames Estuary.
In 2015, we created 10 flags, created by Kinetika in association with more than 300 local schoolchildren from nine Thurrock schools alongside more than 50 creative adults from all over the borough. Each of the beautiful silk flags created is 4m high and each represents one of the 10 walks, featuring places of interest around each area.
Each walk was 10 miles to make the first 100 miles of the T100 Festival, and the flags were carried like Olympic torches on each walk.
More than 1,500 people took part in the walks, including students from Gateway Academy, East Tilbury, Bulphan and Horndon primary schools, and individuals from 5 to 75 who walked distances ranging from half a mile to 100 miles over the ten days of the festival. On Saturday 18 July people from all over Thurrock gathered to walk the very last mile, with all 10 flags, processing through Grays town centre, accompanied by the Thurrock Marching Band before arriving at the new Village Beach festival on Grays Beach.
