We would like to invite you to our 24th Celebrate festival for 2021 – with a difference!
Our theme is Celebrate Connections – and because we haven’t been able to get together for so long, we want to do something positive, all get involved, reconnect and look forward to when we can meet up again.
Of course we couldn’t hold a Festival last year because of the pandemic – and we still can’t hold our usual face-to-face event in the park this year, but we are planning lots of smaller events, activities and workshops between Saturday 12th June – Saturday 19th June – when the weather will be warmer and restrictions may be a little more relaxed…and of course we will be following government guidelines to keep our community safe.
We want to work together to make an Art Trail throughout Whalley Range – so that when people go for their daily walks they will see some inspiring and beautiful colours and will feel more connected to neighbours, friends and family. (maybe send us a photo or two for our gallery in the JNR8 windows!)
Celebrate week 12th – 19th June. We plan to put together Celebrate Connections packs for people who would like to get involved – with a selection of arty-crafty goodies/instructions to decorate your windows and outside your doors. The packs will contain template stencils for you to make beautiful Peace Mandalas, Rangoli patterns or Islamic designs to colour in or using chunky chalks on your doorstep – so people of all ages and abilities can join in! We will also be working with some residents to decorate the front of their houses.
We are planning to have small events and pop-up music and performance at different places during the week – celebrating local talent. There are some amazing musicians, performers and artists in Whalley Range.
And if we are able – a procession or some smaller processions throughout Whalley Range to finish off the week of Celebrate Connections – bringing our community back together again!
We will be working with our groups and facilitators – who can’t run their usual face-to-face workshops – in a number of ways. We have some funding to run small scale workshops and performances to be delivered to small/closed groups leading up to the events – in schools and community centres, housing schemes etc. and will be planning and discussing our offer over the coming weeks.
We have a small budget which we will offer to some of our local community groups who can apply for up to £100 for materials and expenses to run activities that fit in with our theme Celebrate Connections!
On our website during the Celebrate week we will promote (free) interactive, participatory local arts and crafts activities, music performances etc – tell us what you’re planning for that week and we’ll add it to the ‘virtual programme’ Or why not run one of your sessions specifically for the event?
Get in touch if you would like help to run an activity online.
We will also feature and promote health and wellbeing support groups and related activities: are you part of an online meditation group/Tai Chi/Yoga/ etc happening during that week? Why not get more people involved by running a free introduction session or sending us details to include in the ‘programme’?
We would really like to hear your ideas too: what can we do to feel more connected?
We want to work together across Whalley Range: we have a fantastic and diverse range of groups, musicians, community organisations, Faith groups, schools and more. Our mutual aid/street groups have been a lifeline to some of us and have brought people together to share ideas, improve our spaces and support each other.
And at the end of the week – depending on the rules – we are hoping we can have a Community Connections procession or several smaller processions to dress up, play some hand made instruments and wrap up the Festival!
Interested? Contact Chris or Lotte on 0161 881 3744, or communityforumwhalleyrange@gmail.com
