A community festival with a real arts focus, the festival was all about celebrating our beautiful, unique community – and everything it has to offer. It was devised and project managed by our very own Freya Bennett-Nielsen (our now-office-manager and performance artists, who was just 16 years of age at the time of the event).
We welcomed a number of musicians and performance groups to the music stage, playing a wide range of music including Cuban, West African, Blues, jazz and swing. Our workshops tent invited punters to try their hand at drumming, brass instruments and circus skills, and the whole day culminated with a parade in which local people were invited to join in, donning a pair of wings or taking up a drum. Alongside Global Grooves, performers included Jubacana, Oldham Theatre Workshop, Kyla Brox, Circus Sensible, The Tony Greenwood Big Band, Sura Susso and Jalikunda, and Cabasa.
Celebrate also helped us raise the profile – and raise the funds – for the follow-up Mossley Light Festival.
