Our community-led photography and music project.
100 Faces of Croydon showcased the people and places who make our borough unique. The project aimed to create a snapshot of Croydon in its year as London Borough of Culture in 2024.
30 local photography enthusiasts took portraits of 100 people in locations which represented what Croydon meant to them. Two photos of each ‘face’ were taken: one black and white headshot and one colour portrait of them in their chosen environment.
The portraits were unveiled on 10 February 2024 at our big 75th birthday concert at Fairfield Halls when all 100 Faces came together to perform György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes while their portraits were projected onto a large screen on stage, fostering a strong sense of local pride and community.
The portraits were displayed around Fairfield Halls on the night through foyer projections, vinyls on the outside walls and rotating digital screens. For a further 12 weeks, the portraits were displayed around Croydon on trams, in stations and on billboards around the borough, further enhancing local pride in the project.
Meet all 100 of our faces
We made a bespoke 100 Faces of Croydon website, full of the people who gave the project its name.
For many participants, this was their first classical concert and it gave them a unique and empowering opportunity to star in the performance itself. The concert was hosted by Petroc Trelawny and recorded for BBC Radio 3, vastly increasing the project’s profile and reach.
16 project participants have since become LMP Champions, a community-based advisory group. Their role is to help shape our performance and community programmes to ensure that our activity as Croydon’s Resident Orchestra is informed by the local people for whom it’s produced; a fitting legacy of this innovative community engagement project.
Happy 75th birthday to us!
Created by Croydon
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Croydon Council