Tuesday 7 April 2009

Banksy print for just 1p

Banksy - Trolleys

No. 57 - the big winner on the night

Yorick: No. 53 - close, but no cigar

Huw: No. 55 - close as a close thing

No. 174 - not close, but I got to chat to Reeps One


Yorick & I registered with a PR and Promotions company called Artichoke Ltd during March to be in with a chance to grab a signed Banksy ‘trolleys’ print for just 1p.

Throw into the mix the fact that there was free beer all night (courtesy of Brahma - showcasing a very tasty lager from Brazil), djs, a special performance by beatboxer Reeps One (of Secret Wars fame), and artists painting live in a secret location, and we're sold.

Easy online registration reserved us an invite, but we had to be there to be in the running to win the prize (and obviously to drink the beer). The first 400 were assured of entry, and anyone after that missed out. We were running late, but by the time we arrived they hadn't let in too many peeps (about 60 by my calculations), so we joined the back of the queue. I guestimated there were probably about 200 people in front of us, so, unless a whole bunch of invites or queue jumpers hoped in in front of us, we were in.

Took a while (a long while) but we made it through the front door and got ticked off the list, given a registration number and a beer. Every one who got in got a number. The winner would be picked out of a lotto type spinny thing, and could claim their signed, framed Banksy upon validation of their number and redemption of 1p.

We walked around the two and a half story art space chatting with punters and watching artists paint live for about an hour, being lubricated by free Brahma the whole time. Brilliant! That's my kind of Friday.

Duly the winner was announced by Pete from Artichoke. Number 57. Quite a wait and no. 57 came down the stairs to claim his prize. He was, as you can imagine, well chuffed. Less chuffed but well lubed was Yorick with number 53, and our new friend from the queue, Huw, who had no. 55. That was well close, but didn't bother me as I was well out of the running with 174. Ha!

All in all a top night. Thanks and respect to Artichoke Ltd, Brahma, Reeps One and all the artists involved.

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