It Happened In The Dingle – 14 Hours In Photographs

We still can’t quite get our heads around everything that went on during April Fools’ Day but we can definitely say it happened in The Dingle! We set out to create a ‘fluorescent utopia’ over 14 hours and the great and good of Liverpool’s creative community, and collectives further afield, stepped up and helped us see through our vision. We have to extend a huge thanks to everyone who contributed to Happening and helped us raise money for, and also shine a light on The Florrie – a much needed community centre in one of Liverpool’s most deprived neighbourhoods, which has also become a cultural hub in the city. The fact everyone dedicated their time and talents free of charge not only made the event possible but also highlighted the fact that there’s a growing need and desire for this kind of creative, collective chaos.

Instead of us trying to explain the unexplainable, here’s some quotes, photos and videos to help make sense of the day of fools…

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“This time it was a number of factors that happened to fall into place. For one thing, I’m just about to launch into the final volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with Kevin O’Neill, and there happens to be a brief lull in my schedules.

For another thing, The Florrie is a beautiful building and we all have to do all we can to stop our – and I repeat our –heritage being eaten and excreted by this new breed of voracious and ridiculously entitled demi-humans that seem to have recently infested the political landscape. A third contributing factor is that the event will be showing off some of my lovely wife Melinda Gebbie’s lovely paintings in a suitably celebratory setting, and I really wanted to be present for that.

Fourthly, it will be an opportunity for us to hang out with Leah (Moore) and John (Reppion) and three of our astonishing grandsons, Eddie, James and Joey. And finally, since I’ve been promised some kind of mandrill-themed Nuremberg rally to shore up my populist support prior to the takeover, I really didn’t see how I could refuse.” ~ Alan Moore (Getintothis)

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“It came about through Greg Wilson really. He came in to visit us at The Florrie, loved what we were doing, knew we were a charity, knew we were struggling to sustain The Florrie and he wanted to do something to help us. So he suggested we should stage a Super Weird Happening at The Florrie, which I’d never heard of before until he talked me through it. Basically it means anything can happen, at any time, within 14 hours. And were we up for it? Yeah we were up for it!” ~ Anne Lundon

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“I like what John Lennon once said about being very serious about being non-serious. I suppose that’s the balance of thoughtfulness and frivolity we’d hope to achieve. Super Weird Substance emerged as the result of a fool’s leap. Alan Moore had talked about this in an interview, and it really left an impression – he said “anything of any value in our lives – whether that be a career, a work of art, a relationship – will always start with such a leap. And in order to be able to make it you have to put aside the fear of failing and the desire of succeeding.” We set up the label on April 1st, so when we saw that this was a possible date for the Happening, we couldn’t let it pass. The tarot card, The Fool, of course, is symbolic of creativity – taking that step into new beginnings.” ~ Greg Wilson (Skiddle)

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“There’s a trickstery, chaosy fun thing in Liverpool. It’s the perfect place for a thing like this. It just ties in with so many other things, such as the Mathew Street myth. Everybody gets it, the notion that there’s some creative force in the underground, where The Beatles formed in The Cavern and where Bill Drummond was making his sets in the basement of that building. And underneath there’s the same creative force that was so important to Carl Jung. It’s the sort of myth where people go, “well I’m going to go there and do a thing and add to it” – this ever-thickening mythos around Discordianism and Liverpool and Mathew Street.” ~ John Higgs

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“I just love the joy on people’s faces, especially the people who’ve been organising it – who’ve spent months and months of their lives pulling favours with no money and things like that – can’t quite believe it’s happening. They have this look, “it’s actually come up!” It’s like they never really believed they could pull off an event as big and important and right as this – everything feels great. People from Jamie Reid to Youth to Alan Moore; these are just inarguable good guys and to get them all together to celebrate this little piece of Liverpool and to celebrate culture and what our culture could be – you know, it’s just a great day!” ~ John Higgs

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“Fantastic day from start to finish. Felt like all my favourite people had been collected for me personally!” ~ Leah Moore

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“It was a brilliant event, amazing venue and magical people.” ~ Ash Nugent

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“Everyone who’s performing today is donating their time, their skills, their performances free of charge. There’s probably about 90% of the people who are in the building now who’ve never been to The Florrie before, who’ve never been into The Dingle before, so it’s really important to us that people are coming in and seeing The Florrie.” ~ Anne Lundon

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“This event showcased the richness evident in the artistic underground and in the effervescent culture of Liverpool itself. The Florrie, a restored building benefited from the proceeds of the event, the performances given freely to a space used by the Liverpool 8 and wider community. The takings from the café went to Liverpool Homeless Football Club. Truly this was the best of human nature on show, the friendliness and culture that make life worth living. A memorable and stunning event that will live long in the memories of those lucky enough to attend.” ~ Louder Than War

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“Moore comes across as a genuinely nice guy who thinks that Sleaford Mods are brilliant. We see him throughout the day chatting with fans and a lot of children and he clearly is genuinely sound at heart.

He finishes the talk by urging us to embrace authenticity rather than re-hash old ideas, and that this mad time we are living through is ripe for creating a new counter-culture “When bad stuff happens, art and culture kick in.”’Moore assures us that “The things that are most popular are usually rubbish, stand up for what’s important, not popular.”

Much of what he says is applauded and it soon becomes clear why his books are so incredible, with a mind like this it’s unavoidable.” ~ Getintothis

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“This is basically a gathering of the tribes. We’ve been going to a lot of countercultural events the past few years, meeting and connecting with people – finding the others basically. That’s what we’ve been doing; Discordian traditions and taking back culture. That’s what this is about because the battle is for the culture at the moment and I like to think that we’re on the front lines.” ~ Kermit Leveridge

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“It’s a reunion for one thing, of all the Festival 23 crowd and a lot of the people who got turned onto this whole insane strange mythology back when we did Cosmic Trigger in Liverpool in 2014. So there’s this sense of the tribes crossing, the threads growing…

And also what I think’s going on here is what I would call ‘immediatism’ – this idea that as a culture is in its nascent early stages, really what it’s about is doing art for your tribe. Discordianism is really helpful in that sense, as an ethos that says, “You know we’re not taking it too seriously, but we’re kind of worshipping Eris the Goddess of chaos and confusion” and it’s really just about everyone networking to inspire each other’s highest creativity – that’s all we can do – and events like this mean we gather and we all reinvigorate the mythology, we reinvigorate the connections. The amount of projects that will spring out of this very night…” ~ Daisy Eris Campbell

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“Of course John Higgs’ book is a massive part of what’s going on here – bringing together The KLF, Alan Moore, Illuminatus! and Ken Campbell, Liverpool, Doctor Who – all these really vital threads. And to spin them all around the manhole cover again and to really bring that mythology alive for a whole new generation, to let people through, in a way the part that was the most of popular culture, through The KLF route. It’s reinvigorated things massively. And of course, the 23 moratorium ends August 23^rd this very year and we know from their posters that we’re back to Liverpool! We’re back to the manhole cover, we’re back to Jung…” ~ Daisy Eris Campbell

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“It was a total energetic pick me up on many levels. I got there early and listened to most of the talks, by John Higgs, Alan Moore, Melinda Gebbie, who were great as usual. Jane Casey a revelation, the black music panel excellent. The Cosmic Trigger gang wavy, fun and chaotic. When they broke into an unexpected acoustic ‘justified and ancient’ it raised goosebumps. Strangely potent, this cheap music.

The main knowledge I received was that for a happening to happen, it’s not about the lights, it’s not about the sound system, it’s not even about the music. Combinations of those, yes, however the main thing is the people. The people coming together and creating something between them that they can’t create on their own.” ~ Richard Norris

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“There is a community feel in terms of the people here,

And creation, as it all comes together to help restore Liverpool. Not that its ever been split,

The city survives every shatter. Greg Wilson knows this as does Josh Ray and Tom C.

It is a magical place as Johns Higgs and Row would inform us. There is so much in its

Accent, even the buildings here speak to sky. They comment on the days before we could all

Look no further than the limits of money, and back to the soul and the why,

That explained where we live and what we try to do for each other. A happening on a Fool’s Day” ~ David Erdos (International Times)

Credit: Nick Mizen