When
you hear the phrase “Sheffield Children’s Festival,” words
such as boring and babyish may pop into your head. Having
attended this year’s festival, I no longer think this
is the case. Quite the opposite, I believe that it’s
an interesting period of the year for children and adults
alike to enjoy interesting and exciting entertainment
in Sheffield. Also, it is a great opportunity to get
Sheffield
on the map as an exhilarating city, happy to celebrate it's young people. I went to a selection of the events that
happened this year and thoroughly enjoyed every one I went to,
here’s a little taster.
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At
least 85% of the schools in Sheffield have been involved in the
festival in a variety of ways, using their skills of art, dance,
acting and much more.
FAME
A
brilliant production of “FAME” the musical took place
at the Crucible. The show was performed by the production company “Bratz
Unlimited” and there were obviously some young stars in
the making involved. The cast also seemed to really enjoy it
and this
made it more enjoyable for the audience. I spoke to Lucy Tissington
who was involved in the production who said,
“…it
was excellent because of the audience. They were fantastic.” Harry
Keaton had a main part in the performance and enjoyed it so
much that
he didn’t want it to end, “…I
wanted to do it more because it was very thrilling.” Lucy agreed and said, “I
was upset that it was all over!” I
thoroughly enjoyed this performance and can’t
wait to see what they perform next year, so look out for them in
Sheffield!
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The Workstation
At The Workstation I saw some fantastic artwork crafted by some
extremely talented young people in the city. The materials used range
from clay to wool, from mosaic tiles to oil pastels. There was a
massive range of different types of artwork and it was all truly
inspiring. As you walked in, the different shapes, colours and sizes
struck you right away. They were not the boring, bog standard stereotypical
artwork that young people imagine when thinking of going to a gallery.
It was all really interesting and I could see what thought, time
and imagination had been put into each piece. Inspirational!
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Dance
around the world
Held
in the winter gardens, this simple event was very effective.
Parents, teachers and passers-by
gathered around beneath the huge array of gorgeous plants
to watch children from primary schools, all around Sheffield,
performing international dances.
The children did extremely
well as they had only had a couple of practice sessions and
had the spectators enthralled by what they were doing. Dances
ranged from Aboriginal to Indian.
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Ewan
Nichols managed the event and he said,
“…it’s
fun and you see hundreds of kids smiling… The kids really
genuinely enjoy it.”
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Street
Festival
This
simple event in The Children’s Festival worked well in
the relaxed and cheerful environment of Orchard Square. There
was a huge age range of performers, and people passing through
the Square at lunchtime, or doing some leisurely shopping,
enjoyed being able to simply sit in the relaxed environment
and watch.
I
spoke to the overall organiser of The Children’s Festival,
Pauline Evaleigh, who is a strong believer that the festival
benefits a huge amount of young people in many ways,
“People
don’t forget the fact that they’ve been involved.
If you do something that’s special…you tend to
remember that.”
I
hope that you can see what an amazing festival this is. Look
out for any events you could get involved with next year as
there are some amazing opportunities!
by
Elizabeth Pipes To
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