The story so far..
It’s about two months since I first started having ideas for Guerrilla Gigs For Kids, this crazy hippy dippy idea that I could just rock up where ever I felt like and sing nursery rhymes with children… Little did I know that outdoor spaces have significantly more bureaucratic red tape around them than indoor spaces!
I have been working with Dublin City Council to get my “Pre-instrumental music classes for babies and toddlers” (they are NOT “shows” or “performances” anymore – shhhh) officially permitted in places like St Anne’s Park and Fr Collins Park in Clongriffin etc
It’s taken a while but the good news is that I have VERY NEARLY ALMOST been granted that permission – in fairness to the lads at the Parks Division, they have a lot to deal with at the best of times and it sounds like getting this off the ground for me has been a lot of work them!
In the meantime I have been locating privately run venues with outdoor spaces, mainly sports clubs with astro pitches, that I could hire myself – it turns out that these places tend to also have indoor halls/function rooms attached to them, which will also be available to hire when we are able to resume indoor activities.
With the national Covid Road Map being (at the time of writing) to allow indoor activities to resume from July 5th, renting places with both indoor and outdoor space really seems like the best way forward for us right now.
Weekly Schedule
I used to have a weekly schedule way back in 2019 and the way things are going, it’s looking like I’m on track to having one again very soon!
The following is how I think things will look each week, each location has both outdoor and indoor space to move into when we can which is very exciting! I’ll keep the WhatsApp groups for booking places each week, as that seems to be working out ok for now?! If you would like to any of the WhatsApp groups just drop me a message and I will send you on the invite link. Booking will be opened up two or three days in advance of each “class” taking place – this way we can have accurate weather predictions and I will know not to go taking bookings if it’s going to be lashing rain. The best thing to do is join the group or groups which you think would be handy for you and keep an eye out for a message saying that the booking is open.
Monday – Drumcondra
Ierne Sports and Social Club, Grace Park Road
Tuesday – ???
still up undecided…
Wednesday – Raheny
Raheny GAA / Benchwarmer Coffee (Beside Raheny Garda Station)
Thursday – Clongriffin
Father Collins Park (pending approval form DCC) and then Clongriffin Junction when it reopens (again, this is up to DCC)
Friday – Portmarnock
Portmarnock Sports and Leisure Centre
Saturday – St Anne’s Park
St Anne’s Park (pending approval from DCC) and then back in The Red Stables, again, when public health guidelines allow…
The cost and how to book
Because it’s currently weather dependant, booking for each location each week will open just a day or so in advance as to avoid wasting everyones time booking and then cancelling if it rains.
Once you have joined a group, all you need to do is wait for myself (or a group admin) to announce on the group that the booking is open along for the day in question, along with the time slots available. To book your place, all you need to do is post to the group stating your name, your child’s name and the time slot you would like. It’s first come first served at this point so you might need to be quick off the mark because I’m taking maximum 12 households per group (one adult per household please)
If you need to cancel for any reason just post to the group, even if it’s only half an hour before, so someone else can take your place.
The cost is as follows
- Kids over 12 months €10
- Babies under 12 months €5
- Younger siblings €5
- Younger siblings under 9 months – no charge
I can take cash or card and I also have Revolut (username @rainbowphil) and PayPal (phil@rainbowphil.com)
I think that covers all the info, but if you have any questions at all just ask away!
There’s only one rainbow phil
If you’re looking at the above schedule and thinking “What about my local area?!”, I still have Tuesday mornings up for grabs!
However, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that I’m only one person and there are only so many days in a week – I’m not Blippi, I can’t just hire another version of myself and hope that no one notices!
During the month of May I said yes to everything, I thought I could be everywhere at once and tried my very best to make everyone happy. I ended up cycling between feeling like some kind of unstoppable juggernaut one minute and feeling completely overwhelmed and out of my depth the next. Of course this resulted in a very unhealthy Rainbow Phil. Fortunately I realised I was heading towards burnout in time. Although I did have a bit of a meltdown, expressed in meme form, I decided to take some time off to figure out how to sustainably continue being Rainbow Phil, which I now realise is by having a bit of routine and stability!
Here are the memes, I still think they’re good memes, but I’m glad I’m not in any of those mind sets anymore!
