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That massive David Bowie memorial in Brixton? Not gonna happen

James Manning
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James Manning
Content Director, EMEA
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A month ago we reported that a team of Londoners were crowdfunding to build a big, red lightning bolt in Brixton as a permanent tribute to local hero David Bowie. Well, it’s not happening. The project has been canned after they fell way short of their fundraising target.

The brand and design agency This Ain’t Rock ’n’ Roll and artist Charlie Waterhouse were ambitiously aiming to raise £900,000 from Bowie fans worldwide for the so-called ZiggyZag. After the set month they’d been pledged £50,000, which is about five percent of their goal. In the words of Bowie himself (‘Red Money’, 1979): project cancelled.

In a surprisingly upbeat statement, the organisers admitted that ‘£50,000 doesn’t go anywhere near realising the ambitions of the ZiggyZag’, but said they had ‘no plans to go away’. ‘We’ve learned a hell of a lot,’ they wrote on the crowdfunding page. ‘And we’ll be able to plough that learning back into the project, and return with a ZiggyZag #2 that’s even better (and hopefully a bit cheaper).’ So keep your ’lectric eye out for that, babe.

In the meantime, Bromley Council is raising a slightly more achievable amount to restore their David Bowie bandstand. If you’d pledged money to the ZiggyZag, why not send it Beckenham way instead? It’s what he would’ve wanted, probably.

From Brixton to ‘Blackstar’: read our David Bowie tribute

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