As you may already know we’re co-hosting a Christmas Fayre with Slung Low, Belt Up and Pilot Theatre down at the HUB in Leeds on Saturday 11 December. There will be stalls selling things made by artists, a hog roast, readings of new Christmas stories, carols sung round the piano in The Parlour, face painting, roast chestnuts and so on. More details here.
Our ‘stall’ will be a MixTape Exchange. Basically, we’re inviting you to make a mixtape and send it to us care of the HUB (address at bottom of this blog post) or bring it with you on the day. We’ll then put all your offerings into a hat and, Tombola style, pick you out a new one which we’ll either exchange there and then or send to you in time for Christmas. A wee gift for a stranger made with care and love, the only cost of which is your time and a small postage fee. We’d suggest including a Christmas card or note with a message (of whatever length) for whoever ends up receiving your tape.
Now traditionally a mixtape was an actual audio cassette but, this being the year 2010, not many of us still have the hardware to play one of those. And so we’re inviting you to send your gift in whichever format you’d most enjoy making. This could be…
– an actual cassette (I’m intending to make one on the day to go into the hat)
– CD
– memory stick
– for download using Mixtape For You
– any other format you want
If you’re unable to actually create the physical recording in time for the 10th, then we’d also invite you to bring/send a Christmas card with a message and your preferred contact details which we will send to a random recipient picked from our hat. They’ll then be able to contact you to arrange delivery/exchange when it’s ready.
We’re not going to set a ‘theme’ for the mixtapes but since this is for our Christmas Fayre you might want to consider “a seasonal approach”. Which for me is less about including ‘Christmas songs’ and more about being, I don’t know… “jolly”. A collection of songs and music that you’d like to listen to as you wrap presents, the aroma of mulled wine filling your home as you’re occasionally excited by the sense that an old beardy man might be dropping down your chimney any moment.
Consider as well that our mixtapes are a gift. Something to bring a wee bit of joy into someone else’s life. Give and ye shall receive.
Hopefully this is all clear. Any questions then please feel free to email me:
j *at* unlimited dot org dot uk
And as an advance offering to all of you, I’ve made a non-seasonal ‘tape’ for you to listen to online. You can find the link to it at the bottom of my last blog post here.
Really looking forward to receiving and distributing your mix tape gifts.
Joy and cheer.
JONx
Please send any tapes/CDs/memory sticks/cards to:
UNmixtape
c/o The HUB
67-72 Bath Road
Holbeck
Leeds
LS11 9UA