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Extinction Rebellion to 'Rewild' London's Berkeley Square on Monday Evening

No this isn't comics, it's late at night on Sunday night in London, this just popped up and I thoughtm why not. Of late I've taken to cycling through London as much as I can. It really is a remarkable way to see the city, its people, its politics, its parties and or late, its protests. And I've also walked round the recent Extinction Rebellion events with my kids. It was really something special for them – and me – to see.

And as the Royal Society For The Protection Of Birds release two minutes of birdsong into the national pop charts, dubbed Let Nature Sing, to highlight the tens of millions of bird numbers that have dropped in the UK alone in the past half century, the activist climate change group Extinction Rebellion, who brought London to a stnadstill in the most charming way possible – their slogans still adorning Waterloo and Westminster Bridges – their target tomorrow will be London's Berkeley Square, the location of certain song about nightingales.

And so they announce, in London on Monday evening, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. Here's their message. I may try to cycle through…

• A musical Extinction Rebellion in collaboration with 'Sam Lee's Singing with Nightingales' & The Nest Collective
• Today 6pm – 9pm Monday 29 April, Berkeley Square, London
• Poets, musicians and nature lovers will join together to perform the most romantic rebellion.

Using the wonders of technology, Extinction Rebellion and The Nest Collective will rewild Berkeley Square from 6pm, Monday 29 April, with the song it is most famous for. Through synchronised streaming of the Nightingale's mesmeric yet seldom heard courtship song via mobile phones and mobile speakers, our pop-up action will fill the park and surrounding streets with the song of a creature nearing extinction on this island.

The birdsong will be accompanied by offerings from musicians, singers, poets and anyone who wants to collaborate with the finest singer in the world.

In the midst of the heightened attention to the ecological and climate emergency we want to bring people together in celebration of the musical beauty of the natural world. This central London rewilding action aims to bring poetic focus to the shocking demise of our own native species and give Londoners the opportunity to hear a once ubiquitous songbird, now near extinct in the UK, in its mythic notional home.

Written in 1939, this renowned ballad tells of the impossible moment when a now critically endangered nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) sings in Mayfair's famous garden square. Nightingales have not been heard in Central London, let alone Mayfair, for several hundred years. However, through the magical power of people and technology this Monday 29 April, Extinction Rebellion, Sam Lee, The Nest Collective and a pop-up flash mob of nature enthusiasts, musicians and supporters will gather to rewild nightingale song back into Berkeley Square. We invite the public to use their 3G connected smartphone device or tablet and a mobile bluetooth / wired speaker to stream the birdsong to be amplified in a sonic rewilding of the square.

Every Spring for the last five years,  folk singer and nature conservationist Sam Lee has been running intimate 'Singing With Nightingales' concerts in the woods of Sussex, Kent, Essex and Gloucestershire, bringing audiences into 'ear tinglingly close proximity' to wild birds while in their season of renowned courtship song. Musicians and singers collaborate with the bird in a sublime duet as the finale of a woodland/campfire experience with conservation awareness at its heart. The event began as an homage to the BBCs pioneering first ever live broadcast in 1924, with Beatrice Harrison famously dueting on cello with a nightingale. Nearly 100 years later, Sam continues that tradition with contemporary players.

The Nest Collective will broadcast nightingale song to Berkeley Square at 6pm on Monday 29 April. Attendees will be invited to stream and play the song through their mobile phones via a dedicated url. Musicians are encouraged to bring their instruments, cellists especially, to make music with this natural improviser. We also encourage poetry and prose celebrating the natural wonders of our land. All musicians should play unamplified – only the birdsong will be amplified.

This intervention is happening just after the end of Extinction Rebellion's blockade of a number of high profile locations in London, and will be a peaceful sit down affair.

Schedule

• 6pm Gather in Berkeley Sq at appointed location for a first centralised hour of songs and music with XR's mobile sound system. We will also be playing the RSPBs 'Let Nature Sing' single, released on the 26 April. This composition is made of pure red-list endangered bird song and is aiming for that weeks chart as a first ever 'Getting Nature To #1'

• 6.50pm Communal sing along of 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Sq' & teaching of 'Bon Soir' – short French round about the nightingale.

• 7pm Audience members will disperse across the Sq and surrounding street in groups to stream their live feeds through mobile phone speakers, rewilding the entire site with birdsong.  The Nightingale song can be streamed from this webpage www.thenestcollective.co.uk/nightingale. Musicians, bards and poets will pollinate these mini gatherings to share their music. Groups can also recite their own writings or choose from the selection of suggested nature based prose listed on the web link.

• 9pm Suggested time for carriages back to our nests

What to bring

• Your picnics, blankets, cushions, fully charged mobile phones, laptops, tablets, battery packs, speakers and minirigs, umbrellas, sunglasses, banners, warm clothes, water bottles & drinks, songs and poems to share, candles an open heart and your listening ears.

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