A pair of drumsticks
You don't need a kit. A cushion, a table and a bit of patience from whoever else is in the house will do.
Pop-ups
Pop-ups
Meet people where they already are
Next pop-up
Saturday 26 September
[VENUE TBC], Nambucca Heads, from the afternoon into the evening.
Everyone welcome. Nothing to bring.
Dates go up here as soon as they're locked in. If you'd rather be told, leave your name and we'll let you know.
What happens on the day
A pop-up removes the usual barriers — cost, confidence, and unfamiliar buildings. We set up in public, visible, everyday spaces, so that showing up takes nothing more than walking over.
- 01Show upWe're set up in the open, in a place you already walk past. Nothing to sign, nobody to get past.
- 02Pick something upInstruments sit together in the middle. Take whichever one you find yourself drawn to and go and sit with it.
- 03ExplorePlay it, write something, record something, or just make a noise and see how it lands. Ask if you want a hand.
- 04Pass it onShow someone else what you worked out. That's most of what a pop-up actually is.
- Instruments are there. You don't bring anything.
- No audition, no stage, nobody performs.
- Free, and always will be.
- Stay five minutes or the whole afternoon.
Pop-up photo
landscape 3:2 — the instruments laid out before anyone arrives
landscape 3:2 — the instruments laid out before anyone arrives
Pop-up photo
landscape 3:2 — somebody sitting with an instrument, mid-afternoon
landscape 3:2 — somebody sitting with an instrument, mid-afternoon
Why pop-ups
Placeholder: heading for the deeper section — why pop-ups exist, in a short phrase.
You don't need experience, talent, or a plan. Curiosity is enough.
Music is older than language, and nobody had to qualify for it. Long before anyone wrote a word down, people were already singing their way across country — different corners of the world, entirely different reasons for making sound, and the same discovery arrived at again and again.
You're holding a small piece of a very old, very large thing.
Placeholder: the Pythagoras and Confucius passage from the current live site, pasted in here. It was not in any of the local files, so it needs to come across from thepeoplesstudio.org — or you can paste it straight in. Roughly two to four paragraphs, sitting after the passage above.
Placeholder: a short closing thought on what a pop-up does for a community, two or three sentences.
Take something home
Come to a pop-up and leave with something in your hands. The hard part isn't the afternoon you spend playing — it's the next morning, when there's nothing in the house to pick up.
A notepad and pencil
For words, for chord shapes, for the thing you thought of on the way home and would otherwise have lost.
A booklet
Enough to get going on your own, and a check-off tracker on the back page for logging a bit of music each day.
How to get one
Turn up to a pop-up. That's the whole process. There's no form, no cost, and nothing to qualify for — packs go to whoever's there and wants one, while they last.
Starter pack photo
square — the pack laid out: drumsticks, notepad, booklet
square — the pack laid out: drumsticks, notepad, booklet
Bring one to your part of the valley
A street, a hall, a market stall, a school yard, a shelter, a driveway. If you know a place where people already gather, tell us about it.