Town centre musical, theatrical and artistic events proved so popular this summer that instead of facing their final curtain call, organisers have decided on a series of encores.
Maidstone’s Town Team – set up in the wake of the bids for Mary Portas’s Queen of the High Street project – held what was scheduled to be its last event on Jubilee Square outside the town hall last week, as part of the Maidstone Arts Festival.
It brought together street theatre, the Hazlitt Youth group and a German wheel workshop, as crowds gathered to enjoy events in the sunshine, staging exactly the kind of event Maidstone council envisaged there when it created the space last year as part of its High Street regeneration.
Now the team, which is made up of council staff, town centre managers and volunteers, has decided to continue the festivities, and the council has agreed to provide some extra funding.
There will be Jazz on the Square on Saturday, August 10; a second Big Gig with several local bands on stage on Saturday, August 17;, and there are also plans in the pipeline for further Saturdays. They will be rounded off with Dancing in the Street on Saturday, September 7.
Ken Scott, who leads the team’s culture sub group, which was responsible for arranging the events, said: “Town Teams nationally have not received a good press, with a focus on the difficulty people have experienced trying to work together.
“My experience is the exact opposite. Our Town Team has been an unqualified success, and it has been immensely rewarding being part of a professional, creative and mutually supportive team.”
The balance and mutual respect we have achieved, is an important foundation for future development.”
He added: “As leader of the culture group within the Town Team, and chair of Maidstone Area Arts Partnership, I am really pleased that we have been able to use some of our creative talent to launch the Maidstone Arts Festival...We have involved over 300 performers, and entertained appreciative audiences – the most common remark was “This is great, just what Maidstone needs, should have been done long ago”.
Mr Scott added that he hoped the success so far would be a springboard towards getting more funding and staging further events in the future.

Jazz On The Square will feature the Chris Corcoran Trio. Chris Corcoran is one of the most sought after guitarists on the UK blues and music scene, who now the trio which released its debut CD, The Getaway, in 2011.