In March 2026, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) took over the Charis Centre, a community centre in West Green, with their Relaxed Concert. Over 100 people attended and it was a glorious afternoon where the partnership between RPO, Creative Crawley and the Charis Centre meant something extraordinary could happen that wouldn’t have been possible if we’d all tried to do it on our own.
As part of Crawley’s Creative Playground, we wanted to develop our offer for neurodivergent and disabled audiences. In 2023, 13 Crawley residents chose to visit one of RPO’s concerts at the Southbank Centre as part of the Come With Us strand of our programme.
The residents found the event moving, and exciting (they got to visit the musicians and RPO staff back stage) and sometimes overwhelming (the Queen Elizabeth Hall is a big concert hall and the Rachmaninov pieces where sometimes challenging).
“The best part is actually meeting with new people of different backgrounds and life experiences. After that the whole thing was a privilege; to go backstage and meet some bigwigs was something very special. In addition of course the quality of the music was amazing.”
Participant, Come With Us.
They tasked us with finding a way to present an RPO concert in Crawley, that was accessible to all. RPO had been playing concerts at The Hawth Theatre for years and were looking for a partner to help them reach new audiences in the town. They had developed their Relaxed Concert and tested it in a few places around the UK. After a recommendation from the Chief Executive of the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill (who was working with the RPO and had noticed the good work Creative Crawley had been doing), in 2025, the team at the RPO got in touch with Creative Crawley and a conversation began about how to make their Relaxed Concert happen in the town.
After visiting a few potential found spaces (we needed somewhere for the 25 piece orchestra to play the concert and also some break out rooms for the musicians to spend time with the audience in a workshop setting), we approached our friends at the Charis Centre. In June 2025, we presented one of our ‘Saturday Sessions’ at the Charis Centre and Chad Taylor’s brilliant ‘Closer to my Dreams’ took place in the car park behind the centre (and at a Boxing Club, but that’s another story) and Jackie and the team at Charis were so good to work with, we approached them with the RPO idea.
Cut to March 2026 and a group of over 150 people (45% children and young people) who sharing a very special experience by an internationally renowned orchestra in a community centre in West Green.
“I cannot thank RPO enough for bringing their Relaxed Performance to Crawley’s Charis Centre. Being upclose to such talented and creativemusicians was such a treat and with the specially created visual aids, a Makaton signer, and expert guidance of Tim Steiner everyone felt included and involved. Breaking down the barriers between orchestra and audience meant that we could respond, move around, and enjoy the experience in our own way. Following the initial concert we were treated to smaller scale activities where everyone could meet the musicians and get to know the instruments better. This was a wonderful afternoon of interactive, accessible, and above all fun music-making.”
“This was my first time at a Creative Crawley event. I’m really impressed and will definitely look out for what you are doing next”
Audience members, The Relaxed Concert, Crawley, March 2026
