Late at the Library: The Party Rules

On Friday the British Library held one of their late night openings to promote their Propaganda: Power and Persuasion exhibition. The only information given about the evening was that it was a party with Hot Chip DJing and a set from the band Public Service Broadcast. Entry to the exhibition was free with the ticket and "former British Library Artist in Residence, Christopher Green, together with his 'Party Police', will use a variety of propaganda techniques to ensure you have a good time."

Interesting! 

First of all we headed to the Euston Tap for some pre-party drinks. Set in the old archways to the gardens, they are very interesting buildings. If you love your craft beer you will love Euston Tap. It was a little lost on me unfortunately as I don't drink beer, but they obviously had a choice of spirits. It is tiny and rather uncomfy-looking inside, but it was a sunny day and everyone was happily sprawled outside.

Opposite Euston Tap is its sister Cider Tap, London's only dedicated cider bar, so if you're more into your cider you can pop across the road and grab a cider.

Then we headed to the Library for the party - an oxymoron, no?

The library had been transformed into a dictatorships haven, complete with secret police watching from the top balconies.

We were given a passport with various tasks we had to accomplish in order to get different stamps. We had to collect stamps from the "Party Police". Tasks included "effervescing, dancing, singing and creating communal joy". This was a dictatorship that would make sure you were going to have fun and party. 

Hula hoops were twirled, glitter was thrown, badges were made, dissenting began. Protests were thwarted, people were not allowed to not have a good time!!

Not sure this guy was a member of the secret police, but he sure had an incredible beard. Bravo.

If you're into electro music, with no words alongside performance art, you will love Public Service Broadcast. I liked it for the first few songs - not sure you can really call them songs though, more like a musical score as the music played like a soundtrack to the videos playing behind them. However, the novelty quickly wore off on me. I guess I'm just not hipster enough.

My sister really got into the Communist spirit:

The exhibition itself was really interesting. We all know how propaganda played a huge part during the wars. This exhibition bring to the forefront the ridiculous accusations and the mind games that both sides played. Shocking books were secretly commissioned by the Hitler regime to create hate towards the Jews and books were published in America to persuade them that Churchill was a madman. Ancient propaganda from all over the world is shown too, but the real eye opener here for me was the recent forms of propaganda, less noticeable because they are less ridiculous, from NHS HIV/AIDS leaflets stating "Don't share needles" to the green cross code or "what to do in the case of a nuclear attack " in the 80s. Truly interesting.

The Exhibition runs till September, so you still have loads of time to get down and see it.