Sneinton Festival
The SNEINTON FESTIVAL is a community and arts event that has been held annually for the past 11 years and includes a 'Festival Week', with seven days of events around the area, all culminating in the 'Carnival Day and Parade', a free event that includes performance and street entertainments, and held in and around the local 'Hermitage Square'. The Sneinton Artists' Group as well as holding the Art Trail and Showcase exhibitions during the event, has contributed with several of our artists being involved in both organising the festival as well as conducting carnival parade art workshops and various art & craft sessions.
2007 was the 12th annual event with the theme-
Earth, Wind, Fire, Water - Green Energy
featuring Recycled Arts Workshops
"How to make your own wond turbine"
"Make useful things out of Rubbish"
it started on -
Saturday 7th July and ended with the
Sneinton Arts Trail and Green's Mill 200th Annuversary on Sunday 15th July
with Carinval Day and Parade on Saturday 14th July.
About the festival - Background
The annual festival is organised by the independent FESTIVAL COMMITTEE, a volunteer group made up of local residents, representatives of local organisations, community groups, schools, church, youth and play groups, artists, musicians, performers and local project workers. Since 2002 the group has been supported and co-ordinated by the two workers of the Sneinton Community Project.
The Festival Committee has no ongoing funding. It applies for new grants each year to any available authorities, business or charitable trusts. Therefore funding applications are the first priority at the beginning of every year as the Festival needs to get a minimum of £10,000 - £15,000 to operate and put on all the events.
The Festival group uses the TRACS NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE as it's base and contact point, making use of the centre's facilities to hold meetings, organise workshops, store materials and as a contact point. The TNC's resources are also used to produce the Festival's publicity, displays, promotional and business material and all promotional artwork. The group also hold meetings, workshops and social events at the Hermitage Community Community centre.
Initially the Festival group hold meetings every month from the beginning of the year, and then from early May on a weekly basis until the event itself. The Festival is always scheduled for the first week in July, (in term time to allow active participation from local schools)
All meetings are open and anyone can attend. The group works under it's own constitution and elects annually a Chair and Treasurer. It operates it's own account and all finances are audited yearly. The membership of the Festival group has grown steadily over the years and around 50 members are now involved. The number of people and organisations who are are involved throughout the year and during the event itself, is far higher. However day to day organisation relies on only a few individuals.
The Festival remains the only organisation and event in the Sneinton area that represents all sections of the community and one of the few forums where all groups and representatives meet and work together.
The festival was established to allow all sections of the community, regardless of age, background or belief, to come together to help organise and develop the event, as well as to participate in all it's activities. It celebrates both the area and the participants themselves, whether through education, arts, performance, display or sports. It also allows people from all the different cultures and with differing experiences, to meet at it's workshops, social events and at the carnival day and share their time and ideas. . . . .and last, but not least, it gives the area of Sneinton a much needed week of FUN!
The EVENT
Each Festival is organised around three individual elements: Workshops, Festival Week, & Carnival day
1. Workshops.
These are scheduled to take place several weeks before the actual event. They are predominantly (but not exclusively) with young people, most often taking place in local schools and youth groups.
They are based around the years theme, creating artwork, decorations and costumes for the Carnival Parade as well as dance and performance workshops. Apart from the paints, adhesives and tools the artwork is made from scrap material - either from the scrapstore, members donations, or found items etc. The artists involved are paid a fee per session.
The Festival Group also organises school competitions to produce the years festival logos, publicity, themed stories or other similar material used for, or displayed during, the Festival week.
Festival Themes.
Every year the Festival is organised around a different theme, which is used when producing artwork, costumes, performances and also surrounds many of the events themselves. Within these themes the group also tries to focus on community issues such as recycling, our differing cultures, use and access to the media, science and technology etc,
Our themes have been;-
1995 People and Places. (World culture)
1996 Old and New. (Recycling)
1997 Sneinton-on-Sea. (Inner city Seaside)
1998 Planet Sneinton. (Sci-Fi & Technology)
1999 One upon a time in Sneinton. (World folklore).
2000 Sneinton Millennium (1000 years of people in Sneinton)
2001 Technicolor Sneinton (Colour, patterns and psychedelia)
2002 Magic Sneinton (Magic, conjuring and mystical stories)
2003 Channel Sneinton (T.V., Video, film and media)
2004 Sneintopoly (Board games and play from around the world).
2005
2006
2007 Earth, Wind, Fire, Water (Green Energy)
2. Festival Week.
Starts on the Saturday prior to the Carnival Day with seven days of events held in and around the area. They included, exhibitions, displays, open days, performance, entertainers, socials, food tastings, multi-cultural events etc. run and developed by local groups and organisations under the co-ordination of the festival committee. The events are free and open to everyone and endeavour to reflect the diversity of our local community and represent cultures, age and gender, so that everyone can be included.
The committee also organise workshops that take place in schools, the Library, Hermitage C,C, Greenways and other centres these have included, Banner Making, Art/craft workshops, story & poetry writing, photography, drama, dance, circus skills, balloon modelling, face painting, clothes & costume making, cookery, sculpture, etc.
The Festival Committee tries to contribute financially to those groups that may need it, paying for performers, workshop artists and subsidising the costs for refreshments, costumes, equipment, and materials.Many local groups also reschedule existing events to take place during festival week.
All events are publicised and included in our Free Festival Programme, that is commercially printed and distributed to over 5500 household in the area and designed around the years theme.
3. Carnival Day.
The Carnival Parade: - Starts 12 noon from Windmill Car park and proceeds along Sneinton Dale to High Cliff Road, along Sneinton Boulevard to arrive at the Hermitage Square for 1pm.
Each year this colourful and noisy event includes a variety of floats, fancy dress, costumes, event performers, samba bands, jazz bands, youth bands, dancers, jugglers and clowns, and has even had themed celebrities including 20 Star Trek' and Klingon characters and Robin Hood and His Merry Men complete with live Hawk.,
The majority of paraders both adult and children appear in the costumes and artwork created in our workshops. In the last few years we have created over 200 individual elements per year, including several tableaux, 350 pennants and several very large carnival characters.
Of course individuals and spectators are encouraged to join in and follow the parade down to the Hermitage Square.
The Carnival Afternoon: - The first two festivals ('95 & '96) at the Greenway Centre. As there is an unfortunate lack of open spaces or green sites in the area, the group decided in 1997 to turn the event into a street festival when the Greenway was no longer available.
The Carnival Afternoon starts at 1pm in the Hermitage Square, - fronted by both the TNC & the Hermitage Centre and with all side roads closed to traffic -when the carnival parade arrives and features an afternoon of free and diverse entertainment.
The event is traditionally hosted by an MC and includes both professional and amateur performance. Music performers have included, samba, rock, pop and country bands, rap artists, youth bands, Elvis impersonators, Indian Dohl bands, and Bosnian, Brazilian, Asian and Appalachian dance groups. Performances have come from Afro-Caribbean Carnival mask performers, youth dancers, circus performers, fire eaters, jugglers. magicians, puppet shows, poetry readings, story tellers, as well as karate, gymnastic, aerobics and sport displays. It has also featured many local youth acts and performances created for the event itself.
Between these performances there are also lots of communal games, talent spots, prize giving and music.
The edge of the square and side streets are lined with stalls run and organised by local organisation or local commercial groups either selling gifts/crafts, as fund raisers, or simply used for information and display opportunities to promote community activities, organisations, campaign group and charities
There are also lots of refreshment available including Asian, Bosnian, West African, French, Italian and Afro Caribbean food and there is always a traditional cake stall.
Other activities such as juggling workshops, mask making, face painting, braiding, mendi hand painting etc. go on in the streets and two community buildings surrounding the Square. The site itself is decorated with banners, bunting and themed artwork as well as a few hundred helium filled balloons. A flat stage is used in the centre for performance and dancing. The Hermitage centre balcony is used by the D.J., M.C and as the music stage.
Both the Hermitage Centre and the TNC are used as co-ordinating bases (St. Johns Ambulance, performers changing rooms, electrical supplies and equipment storage) and for refreshments, static and video displays childrens games and performance as well as for general WC facilities.Volunteers help put up the site and clear up after the event with some the help from the general public
The Festival events are professionally photographed and the parade and carnival are videod. Media coverage before and after the event has included features and articles in the Nottm. Evening Post, the Nottm. Arrow and live broadcasts and interviews on Radio Nottingham and Radio Trent.