HISTORY

A MADCAP Coalition was borne out of a Community Forum at the Albany, Deptford in 2007. This was initiated after Rankine MacFarlane, alias Dr Burnheart Gloss, a clown who has been working in the Deptford Community for over 25 years, and Raidene Carter, former Senior Producer at the Albany reflected on ways of gaining more grassroots community involvement at the Albany.

The Forum did not want to be a talking shop, and using a small amount of money from the Albany's London Councils grant, decided to hold an event in the garden. Thus began the concept of the Urban Village Fete. Using the success and momentum this event engendered, Albany Voices successfully applied to a funding stream called U-Decide to deliver two more events. These were A Winter Tinder Affair and a weekend of family workshops.

The group were keen to continue their work and develop, and needed to constitute itself as an independent organisation to apply for appropriate funds, and set up their own bank account. The Albany still supports the project by offering space “in-kind” for the group to meet, when needed.

During the summer of 2008 MADCAP delivered or participated in the following events:

Plumstead Make Merry Festival A two-day Urban Village Fete as part of the "Made in Deptford Festival"
Four Carnival preparation workshops leading to a procession
Creekside Education Trust Open Day
Heart & Soul's Squid's Club
Late Summer Garden Party at the Albany
A MADCAP Xmas Caper at the Albany
Deptford Xmas Tree Lighting Up event

We suffered from inclement weather for all three of the Fetes in the Garden at the Albany and the procession, and received very minimal funding, relying heavily on voluntary contributions. The events we held in the garden at the Albany were not very well attended, partly to do with the weather, and partly to do with the change in emphasis of the Albany's output towards Youth and Spoken Word workshops and events.

At the end of 2008 we managed to secure much needed "in-kind" use of a Warehouse on Pepys Estate from the Pepys Community Forum. We had accumulated a considerable amount of materials and needed space to store our home-made Fairground Games.

At the end of 2008, we decided to look into taking our events to the community, rather than expect them to come to us. We made a successful application to the Grassroots Fund to deliver four Urban Village Fetes on estates in Deptford.

During 2009, MADCAP delivered or participated in the following events:

Plumstead Make Merry Festival
Creekside Education Trust Open Day
Seven Urban Village Fetes on estates: 
Evelyn, Friendly Gardens, Admiralty Gardens (Pepys), Wimborne House (The Oval), Sayes Court, Milton Court, Eddystone Tower (Pepys)
John Evelyn Bi-centenary Celebration
Today Deptford at the Albany
Heart & Soul's Squid's Club
Crossfields Festival
Soundings Event (Pepys Community Action Centre)
Deptford Xmas Tree Lighting Up event