In its first year, Summer in the Square organised by Cambridge BID brought together community projects, local businesses, art workshops, live music, delicious food and drink and more to Station Square. We saw around 200 guests attending the event each week; it encouraged more dwell time from commuters, residents and visitors in the city to enjoy the station area and everything it has to offer, including the brand new parklet commissioned by us.
The event ran every Wednesday throughout the month of July from 4.30pm-6.30pm in collaboration with CB1 Community, with different activities and musicians to enjoy each week.
Partners involved
BrewBoard provided a bar each week, FoodPark traders included Steak & Honour, Manna Seoul, Hot Sausage Co and Tawa Kitchen came to sell.
Week 1
Cultivating Change (promoting good mental health by gardening with local communities)
Maurizio Dining (handing out delicious free pizza samples)
Week 2
Monument Cycling (Cambridge Criterium) cycle challenge – ride 300m against elite rider Owen Baker
Living Sport with Decathlon (pop up sports and mini health MOTs)
Week 3
Emerald & Embers (Indian block printing drop-in art workshop)
Cambridge City Council (researching for Corn Exchange 150th anniversary major project, and collecting memories from locals)
Week 4
Floatwell (essential oils sampling, massage)
Lush (hand massages, ‘make your own bath bomb’ activity)
Cambridge Poetry Festival (workshops, games and wordplay around poetry)
Week 5
Cambridgeshire Repair Café (sewing skills as part of ‘crotch repair’ workshop)
BPHA (housing association) clothes swap
Dishoom Permit Room sampling their delicious mango lassi from their cart
Musicians/bands across the 5 weeks - Tom Dulieu; Marina Bush & Johnny Wright; Jess Brett; Josh Robins; Elliot Porter; LTP Duo; John Wright and Ranjan Vasudevan; Georgia Nevada; Sean O’Hanrahan.
Parklet
We also recently commissioned a parklet to Station Square which was contracted and provided by City Dressing. This inviting space with park benches and plants has created an enjoyable place for people to sit, eat lunch and catch up with colleagues or friends or simply somewhere pleasant to sit and wait for your train.
Social stats
Each week we shared a post and stories on our social media channels to advertise what would be on offer at the upcoming event for that week, we also shared stories during the event showcasing what was happening at the event.
Our social media posts and stories had a reach of around 18K accounts.
The Summer in the Square posts were of the top performing posts for that month on our channels with over 8K views.
Feedback
There were many repeat visits from people who enjoyed the event so much that they came back to see what was on offer the following week. Overall feedback from local residents and workers was they loved seeing Station Square vibrant and busy with people of all ages taking part in the activities, watching the musicians and just spending more time to appreciate the space.
It was also an excellent opportunity for our BID businesses to showcase their products or services such as Floatwell on Hills Road came down and offered free massages and essential oil samples; Permit Room on Trinity Street set up a stand handing out free mango lassi, Maurizio Dining on Mill Road handed out free pizza samples and Lush from Lion Yard ran a ‘make your own bathbomb’ activity.
Quote from Jenny Rampling (artist) of Emerald & Embers:
“Thank you again for giving us the opportunity to take part in 'Summer in the Square'. We loved every moment of it! We particularly enjoyed working with such a diverse range of the local community and visitors, and seeing the enjoyment they got from taking part”.
Finally, we would like to thank everyone who was a part of Summer in the Square and helped in making the event series such a success. We look forward to organising many more exciting events in Station Square in the future.
If you would like to be involved in future events at Station Square, please contact jenny.granshaw@cambridgebid.co.uk
