Festive Road was delighted to play an intrinsic part of celebrations in the local area to commemorate Milton Keynes’ appointment as a host city for the Rugby World Cup 2015.
As part of the Parks Trust official Rugby World Cup family-friendly Fanzone, which saw over 36,000 people visit Campbell Park, Festive Road was commissioned to provide two giant rugby clad puppets, Gareth and Thomas! The puppets, approximately 3 metres high took a total of 7 days to make; 3 days for the costume and 4 days to make the heads. Gareth and Thomas were fortunate enough to meet the Mayor of Milton Keynes, Councillor Keith McLean, and were also featured on ITV, Sky and South African TV. Festive Road also supplied their amazing Dhol drummers to provide part of the free entertainment for visitors to the Fanzone from 1-11th October.
As part of the ongoing celebrations Festive Road were commissioned by Milton Keynes Council to create some unique murals. Working together with children from Langland School and Charles Warren Academy, four underpasses in Milton Keynes were painted, each specially designed by the creative team at Festive Road.
Festive Road were also the only local company to take part in the amazing Clash of Drums/Danbor Talka, part of a Milton Keynes’ ‘Official Spectacular’ on 2nd and 3rd October. Over 12,000 people paraded through the streets of Milton Keynes and packed into The Point Car Park to experience the breath-taking performance, featuring 8 Festive Road pyrotechnic performers. Clash of Drums / Danbor Talka was commissioned by The Parks Trust Events Ltd and produced by The Stables and IF: Milton Keynes International Festival, with support from Arts Council England, Rugby World Cup 2015 and Milton Keynes Council.
Louise Evans, Head of Marketing and Events at Festive Road said “As a Milton Keynes based company we were thrilled to be actively involved in the events celebrating MK as host of the Rugby World Cup 2015. It was great to see the arts become such a focal point of the celebrations and, in particular, to see the amazing feedback from attendees via social media of the Clash of Drums. Also, the Fanzone certainly engaged the local community, and far beyond, with our puppets Gareth and Thomas receiving both national and international media coverage.”
Stadium MK’s attendance record was broken three times, and the Japan v Samoa match broke an international record with 25m people in Japan watching. While final profit from ticketed events is still being counted, it is estimated that all the activity has generated in the region of £50million to the MK economy.
