FUN THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU'RE DEAD
Activities, art, games, interaction
Date: Saturday 13th May 2023 12pm - 5pm
Cambridge City Crematorium
Bar Hill exit of the A14
CB3 0JJ
Kindly sponsored by Sacred Stones
Planned activities will include:
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Play a life size game of "Operation"
Handle and learn about human bones
Meet the eco hearse from Woodland Wishes
Also try Woodland Wishes' cardboard coffin out for size
Play the "Gravestones and Dry Bones" boardgame with Cally Trench
Come and chat with archaeologists, osteologists, celebrants and artists
Discuss coffins with Jenny Barnish, the Merry Mourning Widow
Ask any questions you've always wanted to ask about death!
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Workshops
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12:30pm - Say everything you meant to but didn't a chance with our Postal service to the dead with SleepySue, and as a workshop with Liz Barka of Magical Ceremonies - ask about booking on the day
2:00pm - Erica Buist, author of ‘This Party’s Dead’ will attend the day and share videos and anecdotes from her visits to Death Festivals worldwide.
Tickets for this talk are available here - places limited!
3:30pm - Reflect on our hopes, fears and beliefs around the subject of our own death with celebrant Christianne Heal. - ask about booking on the day
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Tour behind the scenes of the crematorium - numbers limited!
More about Erica Buist
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"What if we responded to death... by throwing a party?
By the time Erica Buist’s father-in-law Chris was discovered, upstairs in his bed, his book resting on his chest, he had been dead for over a week. She searched for answers (the artery-clogging cheeses in his fridge?) and tried to reason with herself (does daughter-in-law even feature in the grief hierarchy?) and eventually landed on an inevitable, uncomfortable truth: everybody dies.
With Mexico’s Day of the Dead festivities as a starting point, Erica decided to confront death head-on by visiting seven death festivals around the world – one for every day they didn’t find Chris. From Mexico to Nepal, Sicily, Thailand, Madagascar, Japan and finally Indonesia – with a stopover in New Orleans, where the dead outnumber the living ten to one – Erica searched for the answers to both fundamental and unexpected questions around death anxiety." Tickets for this talk are available here
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Memorial Photo Booth
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The artist Bea Denton will be setting up the Memorial Photo Booth. Participants are invited to consider how they wish to be visually represented in perpetuity; and when is the optimum time of life to capture a Memorial Portrait. A head and shoulders portrait is taken. Face-to-face Photo Booth sessions rely on a simple portable backdrop and digital photography. Resulting images are then taken through various layers of analogue and digital process to achieve the final unique artwork. Each collaborator receives in exchange a new and unique digital copy of their Memorial Photo Booth portrait.
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Refreshments of tea, coffee, cakes and snacks for sale onsite. With themed chocolates and funeral biscuits too!
Timetable for the day
This Event is kindly sponsored by Sacred Stones
Death turns into life, fear becomes reflection, loss transforms into stories and grief journeys to a place of peace. Our carefully crafted barrows provide you with a place of beauty and tranquillity in the English countryside. Somewhere your life is celebrated, your ashes laid to rest, and your loved ones have time to reflect, heal and come to terms with their loss.​
