Festive Road’s year continues to thrive, both near and far; and October was a spectacularly busy month, with the team working on a number of commissions and projects both locally and nationally.
We were thrilled to be invited to work in partnership with Transported Arts in a collaboration with the East Midlands Caribbean Carnival Arts Network (EMCCAN) on a commission for the Spalding Pumpkin Parade; which entailed working with a Lincolnshire secondary school on creating a largescale structure for the Parade; which ended up being a rather fabulous roman chariot, with pumpkin wheels!
Additionally, the Festive Road Education Team has been busy running carnival workshops in Bridgwater, Somerset; Northampton; and Towcester.
Closer to home, the Team had great fun taking part in The Parks Trust’s ‘Spooky Walks’ – their annual Halloween scarefest in Milton Keynes.
Festive Road was also delighted to be invited, once again, by the Indian Hindu Welfare Organisation (IHWO), to help organise the annual Northampton Diwali Parade, which was held on the 29th October. Hundreds of people lined the streets to join in the celebrations and, not only did they see Harminder (the Festive Road life-size elephant), but also ‘Shanti’ the newly commissioned big bird – who is truly spectacular.
Harminder was also very happy to be the centre of attention at her very first wedding at Hagley Hall in Worcestershire, and is looking forward to more events in 2017.
But it is not just the creatures and creations that had a great October: Jessica Rost, Festive Road’s Artistic Director, was delighted to be chosen by ISAN, The Independent Street Arts Network, to take part in the Ideas Summit in Bradford; which give artists/organisations the opportunity to pitch new outdoor arts projects to key people in the industry. Jess was also thrilled to be a finalist for the MK Women Leaders Awards, in the Creative Industries category.
All in all, it was a great month and November is looking to be equally, if not more, amazing!
