Ideas Test: Brompton Halloween Creative Health Project
Ideas Test: Brompton Halloween Creative Health Project
By
Ideas Test
Amy Scott
The Brompton Halloween Creative Health Project achieved a set of tangible impacts on people's lives through a mix of increased creativity and agency, gaining new skills and a greater sense of community, connection and belonging. Amy Scott, Senior Producer, Ideas Test takes us through the plan, process and results.
Creative Health - Brompton Halloween Evaluation video.
View time: 3 minutes 51 seconds
Project Overview
The Brompton Halloween Creative Health project was an initiative designed to boost community engagement and local wellbeing through a shared creative activity. The project was funded by Arts Council England and Medway council as part of a larger Creative Health bid for the area.
The core of the project was a series of monthly meet-ups held in a local café, which served as a valuable, existing community asset. The decision to focus on a Halloween event was timely, as feedback indicated a strong local desire to revive a similar community tradition that had stopped approximately fifteen years prior. This existing enthusiasm provided a solid foundation for the project’s success.
The project ran from May 2025 to November 2025. The central goal was to empower local residents to take the lead in designing and delivering a community event.
Project Aims
The project’s approach aimed not just for entertainment, but for tangible impact on
people's lives through seven key objectives:
● To experience joy and fun
● Experience something new
● Increase creativity
● Develop a greater sense of agency
● Feel prouder of where they live
● Feel a greater sense of community, connection, and belonging
● Gain new skills or knowledge
Co-creation and Community Engagement
A consistent group of nine local people attended the regular planning meetings, demonstrating a high level of commitment and engagement. This group was notable for its diversity, including employed and unemployed residents, local business owners, and neurodivergent members, with ages ranging from the mid-twenties to their 70s. They also represented a varied housing stock, including residents from old naval officers' houses, army barracks, the council estate Melville Court, and sheltered housing. The group was central to all decision-making, ensuring the event was genuinely reflective of local interests and ideas.
Meet-ups: A total of eight community meet-ups took place between May and October 2025. These regular gatherings facilitated relationship building, creative sharing, and robust collaborative planning.
The co-creation process resulted in the design of an immersive Halloween trail within the local community. This involved transforming local businesses and the community centre into different points along the trail, physically connecting local assets and community hubs. The direct involvement of residents in the planning process clearly enhanced their feeling of ownership and pride, as evidenced by participant comments.
“It just made me proud of being part of this and proud of Brompton.”
“It feels more like a community after being involved. We don’t really see our neighbours that much, we don’t all go outside at the same time.”
The project also had a noticeable positive impact on individual wellbeing and confidence:
“It's been amazing to realise I can still be creative, I can still do this…my confidence has improved.”
Creative Development and Local Talent
The narrative for the immersive trail was built on strong local foundations. We commissioned local writer, Kat Pegler, to create a Brompton ghost story. The story’s content was shaped by interviews with local people, gathering their stories and folklore, which rooted the event deeply within the area’s history and culture. This process of collecting and using local stories was key to the project’s success, ensuring the event felt authentic and meaningful to residents.
The trail’s characters were all based on genuine people who once lived in Brompton/Medway, further solidifying the link between the event and the community’s heritage. The project utilised local creative talent extensively:
- The trail was directed by local resident and dramaturg, Nic Lamont, who was part of the café meet-up group and a Brompton resident.
- Trail booklet artwork and design were created by Tukru Hassien, another Brompton resident and regular participant at the planning meetings.
- In total, ten artists were involved. The set designer, writer, and many actors and performers were sourced from the wider Medway area.
Partnerships
The project successfully established five partnerships, with four of these being new relationships. Collaborating with local businesses and the community centre for the trail locations was essential to the immersive experience, increasing the project’s reach and embedding it within the local fabric.
Environmental Health Focus
In addition to the main trail, the project incorporated a focus on environmental health. Costume making workshops, hosted by local Medway artist Xtina Lamb in Brompton Westbrook Primary School encouraged participants to upcycle and recycle materials for their costumes. This approach promoted sustainable behaviour by encouraging people to make rather than buy new and disposable items, aligning the creative activity with a broader positive impact on the health of the neighbourhood through reduced waste.
Project Adaptations
Two planned Halloween cinema nights in the local café had to be cancelled due to the café owner’s ill health. This demonstrated a challenge, but we adapted effectively. The funds earmarked for the cinema nights were redirected to produce several hard copies of the commissioned book by Kat Pegler, which featured the design work of Brompton resident Tukru Hassien. These books will be distributed to local libraries and to everyone involved in the project, creating a lasting legacy and ensuring the locally-inspired story is preserved and accessible.
Accessibility
All event offerings were completely free of charge, removing financial barriers and ensuring every family and individual, regardless of income, could participate in the fun and benefits of this Creative Health initiative. Everyone who attended the trail also received a bespoke booklet of original artwork created by local Brompton artist Tukru Hassien, giving them a meaningful, local keepsake.
Halloween Trail Attendance and Impact
The event itself was highly successful and well-attended:
| Trail Statistics | Details |
| Total attendance | 101 people across 4 trails |
| Demographics | 46 adults, 55 children, and 3 dogs :) |
| Co-creators | 9 local people |
| Artist involvement | 10 artists (2 based in Brompton) |
Participant Feedback and Wellbeing Outcomes
Survey results highlight the significant positive impact of the trail. 100% of our survey respondents rated the trail as Excellent. Furthermore, the average scores (out of 100, where 100 is Strongly Agree) across the survey responses demonstrate high levels of enjoyment, quality, and community feeling:
- 99 on ‘it was well thought through and put together’
- 99 on ‘I had a good time’
- 97 on ‘it made me feel proud of my local area’
- 97 on ‘it helped me feel part of the community’
- 95 on ‘it had a positive impact on my wellbeing’
Everyone who responded to the survey also strongly agreed that the trail helped them feel part of the community. Feedback also noted the appeal of the artwork/booklet:
"My daughter is still looking at her little Boo book, she really enjoyed it." Direct quotes from participants underscore the quality and positive experience:
"Fabulously creative and great fun. Great event for Halloween. Thank you to all involved"
"The actors were engaging and very professional. Hope the event is repeated next year!"
"I think it's fantastic for children and grown ups. I've got learning difficulties and it brought everyone together. the kids all enjoyed it."
Co-creation Team Reflections and Future Commitment
The final evaluation session with the Brompton Halloween team revealed significant satisfaction and pride in their achievements. The co creators were clearly proud of their involvement and were extremely pleased with the positive reception from the wider community, especially regarding the high quality and professionalism of the event and the attendance numbers.
The team was particularly happy that feedback indicated people were still engaging with the trail booklet artwork, highlighting the lasting impact of the creative outputs. An important observation was the positive nature of the group's working relationship, noting their ability to work well together despite having different ideas and viewpoints throughout the planning phase.
Crucially, the team expressed a strong commitment to continuing their work. The next phase will focus on supporting the group's journey towards greater independence, including securing future funding. Ideas Test will continue to facilitate their progress through ongoing meetings and support from the project lead. It will be very interesting to track their progress and hopefully their independence grow.
“There’s been a big change along here, it’s not as vibrant or as busy as it used to be, but that particular night it was kind of like you were looking around and the place was elevated. It was actually something very special.”
ONS wellbeing reflections
We asked participants in the monthly meet-ups to respond to the required questions from the project framework. Our approach was to do this as relationships were established, rather than beginning the process of working together with asking sensitive questions which could be to the detriment of relationship building and participants feeling welcomed to a length of time working together.
See Appendix 3 on page 11 for the data gathered.
Project Challenges and Operational Learning
While the project's creative and community impact was overwhelmingly positive, one key operational challenge was identified during the event delivery phase regarding attendance management. Analysis of the booking data revealed a significant issue with ticket no-shows: approximately 40% of people who booked tickets for the Halloween trail did not attend. This happened despite proactive efforts, including sending emails that highlighted the fully booked nature of the trails and stressing the importance of cancelling tickets. This rate of non-attendance suggests a reduced commitment, possibly due to the nature of 'free events' where people feel less obligation to attend or cancel.
While we are addressing this as an organisational priority, it is important to note that this reflects a wider trend currently being felt across the sector. Discussions with other Creative People and Places programmes have highlighted that a no-show rate of at least 30% is now a standard industry pattern, which many organisations now plan for as a matter of course. By recognising this broader pattern, we are better equipped to refine our own delivery models. We are currently implementing strategies to account for this, such as adjusting capacity to ‘overbook’ where safe, utilising waiting lists, and testing more intensive communication methods closer to event dates to ensure all available spaces are successfully utilised.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The Brompton Halloween Project has been a significant success for Ideas Test and the Brompton community. The project achieved a high level of genuine co-creation, resulting in a unique, high-quality, and deeply local event that generated exceptional participant satisfaction. The project demonstrated the positive link between creative engagement and improved community wellbeing, pride, and local confidence. The events delivered joy, connection, and undeniable value, solidifying its success within the Medway Creative Health strategy. Based on the strong survey data and participant feedback, the project successfully met all seven of its core objectives:
- To experience joy and fun: Achieved, demonstrated by the average score of 99 on ‘I had a good time’.
- Experience something new: Achieved, supported by high attendance at a revived, immersive event format.
- Increase creativity: Achieved, demonstrated by the success of the costume-making workshops and the co-creation of the unique narrative.
- Develop a greater sense of agency: Achieved, as evidenced by the co-creators' positive feedback on improved confidence and ability to be creative.
- Feel prouder of where they live: Achieved, with an average score of 97 on ‘it made me feel proud of my local area’.
- Feel a greater sense of community, connection, and belonging: Achieved, with an average score of 97 on ‘it helped me feel part of the community’ and universal strong agreement on this point.
- Gain new skills or knowledge: Achieved, through the workshops and the co-creators’ learning experience, including the historical knowledge gained through the local ghost story narrative.
The project’s commitment to accessibility, hyper-local commissioning, and sustainable creativity further confirms the project's success. The co-creation team’s strong desire to continue is a major positive indicator for long-term sustainability.
It is highly recommended that Ideas Test and partners explore opportunities to repeat or further develop this event in the future, capitalising on the momentum and skills developed within the local community group and supporting their desire to become a more independent entity.
Amy Scott, Senior Producer, Ideas Test
Ideas Test is an arts organisation and creative people and places programme specialising in working with communities to foster a sense of pride and joy. They focus on reaching everyone across Medway and Swale in Kent, particularly underrepresented people through a vibrant programme of creative activities and events.
By encouraging collaborations between communities, artists, activists, and partner organisations, Ideas Test aims to create positive change for both people and the places they live. They are committed to the long haul, dedicated to engaging communities, taking creative risks, and building the partnerships necessary to try something new.
Download the case study as a PDF.
Photographs: Patrick Baldwin
