Celebrating Creativity and Community: New Brighton Arts Festival 2024
The Arts Festival was featured at our recent C Change Conference. The impact of this event is seen here through the eyes of individual pupils, their families and the wider community.
At HFCMAT we are passionate about partnership, creativity and culture. As such, we have led one of only eight ‘creativity collaboratives’ across the country and the only one in the North West. We named our collaborative CChange to emphasise the importance of creativity within the system and also the regeneration work that we are part of in New Brighton.
HFCMAT / CChange worked with Wirral council to put on a week-long arts festival to celebrate the Borough of Culture in 2024. This was the culmination of a range of partnerships to provide inspiration and energy for pupils across local schools as well as the wider community.
The arts festival programme projected onto a building in New Brighton
Arts Festival events:
Monday – Sing Wirral. 11 choirs from across the Wirral performed on the Floral Pavilion stage. School and community choirs came together for an incredible night of signing with people from ages 7 to 87 taking part.
Tuesday– ‘This is the Place’. An emotive piece about growing up in New Brighton, created in collaboration with Theatre Porto and 4 local primary schools. The performance featured artwork, drawings, and stories from both children and older generations, resulting in a poignant and beautifully acted piece.
Wednesday – ‘Stand-up Comedy’ with students from local secondary schools. Students with low motivation and some on the edge of the education system were chosen to take part in workshops and perform with professional comedians. Our young comedians delivered confident and professional performances.
Thursday – ‘Spoken Word”. Performances by students who had worked with writers Ashleigh Nugent and Just Joe. Their powerful pieces at the Oakland Gallery left many in the audience reaching for tissues. The night ended with a performance by Joseph Roberts, an incredible young poet from Liverpool.
‘Friday Night Live,’ featuring 18 acts performing to a sell-out crowd at the Oakland Gallery. The event included a range of musical styles and featured students from St Alban’s, Oldershaw, Weatherhead, SJP, and St Mary’s, celebrating music outside the school curriculum.
Saturday – The One Community Street Party concluded the week with over 3000 attendees throughout the day and a headline performance by Space. The day included performances by students, community groups, and professional artists, with HFCMAT alumni showcasing their talents. The day was an incredible event that families and the whole community enjoyed.
Impact:
- Impact on children and young people: Over 500 students from our schools participated, gaining invaluable experience in performance, collaboration, and artistic expression.
“Seeing people come down here and clap for us – made us so happy” (Young person)
“Performing here has helped me grow in confidence”
2. Building community. The festival week attracted over 5,000 attendees, including families, local artists, and community members. The involvement of the broader community was instrumental in creating a vibrant and inclusive atmosphere, bridging the gap between the school and its surrounding community.
“Most adults think young people are just about phones but that’s not actually it – we dance, we sing and we have talents. Performing here hopefully shows a different side to us” (Young person)
“For our young people too – it’s building their confidence to be in the community – also letting the older generations see them and see what they’re worth. It’s building a community” (parent)
3. Pride of place: From young people to parents to the wider community, people were proud of the place that they performed in. This was particularly important as New Brighton has historically been run down with little investment in its infrastructure.
“This is putting New Brighton on the map – getting people down here to see what a great place this is” (Local resident)
“This is the best thing to ever happen for New Brighton” (Local band)
Tommy – lead singer from the band ‘Space’ – ‘Absolutely love this place. ‘It’s so cool down here – it’s well better than Lark Lane’
“Really important thing about the festival is that it’s small and big – it’s a street and a town that’s celebrating itself. In this day and age there’s no joy – we can’t fix the big things but we can fix the little ones. That starts with looking out for each other, listening to good music, clapping the children and enjoying the bands. It couldn’t be better” (Local resident)
“When people come down here and see what’s going on – they’ll realise that there’s so much more going on in New Brighton” (Young person)
“Sometimes places like this can get a bad reputation for the wrong reason so doing stuff like this encourages a sense of community which is good. It shows all the youth talents too” (Young person)
“The arts festival is a great opportunity for kids to get involved in college life because you don’t normally get the opportunity to do these sorts of things” (Young person)
Street art commissioned and completed during the festival
4. Inclusivity: The festival was designed to be inclusive, with specific efforts to engage students and community members with disabilities and those from underrepresented backgrounds. This commitment to inclusivity ensured that the festival was accessible and welcoming to all.
Family activities to engage all ages
5. Economic Impact. Local businesses in the Victoria Quarter in New Brighton took over 100% increase in revenue during the festival supporting the local economy. One local business owner told us:
“The day was incredible. We had so many more customers and there was a real buzz about the place. It’s great to be involved in an event like this bringing education, business and community together”
3000 people gathered to listen to ‘Space’ and local bands as part of the NB artas festival
