A week or so ago we went to the Lincoln Archive to further research into The Grandstand.
Browsing through the articles we were given I came across a event taken place near the Grandstand that still as I type this am enamoured by. The event was called “Lincolnshire Expo’ 69”. The event itself was more of a business related festival promoting local brands and businesses. The actual scale of it was impressive, it was a large area that encompassed a section of the field just outside the Grandstand itself. 
The event says that it had so many activities and miscellaneous events to attract, such as live music from the likes of Dennis Wooden Trio and Edmundo Ros. I don’t really understand why however when I heard the name Edmundo Ros I had to look more into him more. I came to discover he was a Trinidadian vocalist/arranger to a extremely popular Latin American orchestra that was playing in Britain at the time. I found it actually quit disheartening to hear that the Grandstand was actually also left out of the celebrations, it was merely a place that was overlooking this huge carnival. Curiosity over took me and I had to find music by him around the 1960 – 1969 period. I came across a track by him called “Hair” from the 12″ LP “Hair Goes Latin” released by a company called Decca in the year 1969. One can only assume that this was the music he performed at the Expo purely due to it being a newly released album at the time. After giving “Hair” a listen I was hooked. The dull, intoxicating sounds and the tunes of the saxophones and percussion I knew if it was anything I could use to bring a element of the Expo to the Grandstand it was this song and Edmundo Ros.
Below is a good quality Youtube link for the song “Hair”
The actual album os “Hair Goes Latin” is available on iTunes and I am still debating downloading it purely for my own hearing.
Another thing that caught my eyes was the fashion show the Expo had. I wanted to learn more about it, however I only had the words Mawer & Collingham Ltd to go by. After a web search I found a good page detailing more about the company. It was actually based in Lincoln on High Street as well as Mint Street. I then found that the company was acquired by now still successful House of Frasier. A standard, and now normal, tale of the local businesses being brought out by the supergiants of consumerism. In the Expo itself the fashion show’s highlight was actually a dress made of stainless steel.
In conclusion I have some idea circulating in my head about how to bring the carnival and festivities to a place which is being placed and named by people, including me, a dead and quiet area. In this moment I feel that instead of dwell on how dark and macabre the place is we actually insert some life and space into it. Of course the idea of the morgue is far to good to pass up on but it makes me think as to how we can bring the two ideas of a celebration and death together.
I was speaking with someone to maybe put a installation deciphering the Expo and placing it in a space where you wouldn’t expect it maybe a dingy cupboard or a space that gives off bad vibes?
Again we are still in relatively early days but the ideas are now really starting to form now.
References:
http://www.housefraserarchive.ac.uk/company/?id=c1657
Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Palgrave Macmillan: London.