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VOLUNTEER MAKERS

  • Sun 5th June 2022
  • Various rehearsals and performances
  • March - May 2022

The Vale, Unit 2 Vale Mill, Micklehurst Road, Mossley, OL5 9JL

Do you thrive in a friendly, creative, and artistic environment? Would you like to help make and create a beautiful Carnival parade celebrating Greater Manchester’s cultural heritage? Do you love to get stuck into the arts and want to learn from internationally recognised makers and artists? From our fully resourced Carnival Arts Centre in Tameside you can get involved in batik to giant puppet making, sewing to dress making. There’s something for everyone regardless of your skills and experience. Meet new friends, tap into your creativity, and help to create something incredible. And the kettle is always on.

We are recruiting now for keen creatives who want to get stuck in to some making in our studios and join us in volunteering to help bring our artists’ and communities’ designs to life. From brightly coloured costume to gigantic backpack pieces and puppets, there are plentiful opportunities to get hands on, suitable for all abilities. Think silk batik painting, cladding, sewing, building, and more… And you will get to see your hard work showcased in London at the Platinum Pageant Parade on 5th June 2022 via BBC broadcast to est. 1.5 Billion viewers or join us in London at our special VIP area!

Global Grooves, as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant, will present a Carnival production involving up to 200 participants from Greater Manchester. Through a stunning Carnival presentation, we will celebrate Greater Manchester’s Global connections and the exchanges between our communities: a sharing of cultures, ideas, gifts and hopes for the future.

Imagine a Brazilian carnival colliding with a Whit Walk. A joyful community taking their story to the streets, soundtracked by the warmth of a brass band fused with a samba bloco. Plus a nod to Greater Manchester’s popular music traditions.

Sound like something you’d like to be a part of?

If you…

  • Enjoy making new friends and meeting new people.
  • Want to connect or nurture your creativity.
  • Enjoy contributing to new work and new experiences.
  • Love the idea of creating incredible work and proudly displaying this global audiences.
  • Get a warm feeling inside when contributing to community events.
  • Are a keen team player and have a ‘can-do’ attitude.
  • Can spare some time to help make something incredible happen.

    … then we want to hear from you!

Volunteering opportunities will be available at our Carnival Arts Centre, in Mossley, Tameside, between March and May 2022. You may also want to apply to join us as crew on the day of the parade or come and join us as a spectator at this incredible event.

A full schedule will be provided outlining the different elements of activity taking place. You can read more about the parade sections and exactly what we will be creating below.

We welcome applications from all, of all backgrounds, and abilities, 16 years old and above.

Please fill in the sign up form below to express your interest. Signups and volunteers are welcome throughout the process on an ongoing basis. To get the most out of the opportunity we encourage you to sign up as soon as possible and we will be in touch to confirm dates and opportunities for the coming months. We may be able to contribute towards limited travel expenses to and from our studio where this is required.

*All participants joining us in London for the Pageant will be required to register to gain access to the event. Under 18s will be required to complete an addition registration, completed by their parents/carers. All participants will be accompanied by chaperones at all times.

Sign up now

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Creating Carnival Home

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Volunteering and Creation Timeline

Please note that times and dates are subject to change.

Keep your eyes on our socials to see how our makes progress!

Batik - Caribbean Fan Backpack Costume

11th – 13th March

10am – 6pm each day with Rowan

From waxing intricate patterns and painting brightly-coloured dye to rodding and sewing, join us to help create this piece of costume!

Batik experience preferred, although we welcome interest from all. Participants would ideally commit to all 3 days to help to get the most out of your time with us. We still welcome drop-in participation.

Please note that the process involved in making this piece will be low down on the floor.

Batik - Bloco-style - block 1

14th – 17th March

10am – 6pm every day with various artists

From waxing intricate patterns to painting brightly-coloured, join us to help create this piece of costume! These pieces will be created on tables.

Batik - Indian Subcontinent Fan Backpack Costume

18th – 20th March

10am – 6pm each day with Kate

From waxing intricate patterns to painting brightly-coloured, join us to help create this piece of costume!

Batik experience preferred, although we welcome interest from all. Participants would ideally commit to all 3 days to help to get the most out of your time with us. We still welcome drop-in participation.

Please note that the process involved in making this piece will be low down on the floor.

Batik - African Fan Backpack Costume

22nd – 24th March

10am – 6pm each day with Lizzie

From waxing intricate patterns to painting brightly-coloured, join us to help create this piece of costume!

Batik experience preferred, although we welcome interest from all. Participants would ideally commit to all 3 days to help to get the most out of your time with us. We still welcome drop-in participation.

Please note that the process involved in making this piece will be low down on the floor.

Carnival costume sewing

24th – 26th March

10am – 6pm each day with Alison

Suited for anyone with an interest in sewing. You’ll get to help measure, cut and pin freshly batiked fabrics, as well as prepare existing fabric, ready to be made in to costume.

 

Carnival costume sewing

31st March, 1st / 4th / 5th / 6th April

10am – 6pm each day with Alison

Carefully working with freshly painted silk to help produce costume. Experienced required. Please do describe this experience when completing the expression of interest form.

Batik - Bloco-style - block 2

28th March – 4th April

10am – 6pm every day with various artists

From waxing intricate patterns to painting brightly-coloured, join us to help create this piece of costume! These pieces will be created on tables.

Queen and Chariot - The Spirit of Courage

5th – 24th April (excluding 12th – 16th April)

10am – 6pm each day with various artists

The big make! For our leading piece, there will be specific yet varied opportunities to get hands on and apply your skills, from helping with sculpting to batik.

Nana Buruku

18th – 23rd April 

10am – 6pm each day with various artists

Work alongside our artists to batik, build structures and bring together Nana Buruku – a brand new, beautiful puppet.

Batik - Flags from Oldham

26th April – 8th May

10am – 6pm every day with various artists

From waxing intricate patterns to painting brightly-coloured, join us to help create this piece of costume! Flags will be created on tables.

About Parade Sections

We are deep into the design phase, getting ready to spring into action this March. Take a look over the illustrated parade map below and explore the different elements of this brand new parading piece.

Click on the images below to explore the latest designs and find information about each section

Creating Carnival – A Sharing Of Gifts

Since 2003, Global Grooves has studied, practised, developed, and shared inspirational Carnival arts practice from around the world throughout the UK and internationally.

We feel incredibly privileged to embrace diverse global traditions with great integrity and respect, creating projects that motivate more people to connect with the arts as a way of making positive change for both themselves and others.

The parade section, 'A Sharing of Gifts', is led by our lead Carnival Queen character ‘The Spirit of Courage’ representing HRH coming to the throne as a young woman and her courageous leadership throughout her 70 year reign. Designed by Iola Weir, the Carnival queen is played by Cheddar Gorgeous, a leading drag artist from Manchester celebrating our world famous Canal Street and the incredible diversity of our communities. Indeed, Cheddar is northern drag royalty.

Our Queen is riding her horse drawing inspiration from HRH’s beloved horse Burmese - famously HRH much preferred to ride a horse than the royal chariot. In the 1981 Trooping of the Colour, HRH was shot at 6 times. Her horse panicked, but she took gentle control of the situation with great courage, calming her horse, and was seen smiling and continuing with the parade, waving to spectators as she passed.

In our lead image our Queen and her horse are riding over the waves, the base representing the hull of a ship acknowledging her journey across the world and her journey through life as the worlds most travelled monarch.

Costume

Our Queen will be dressed in a gold costume, with a neck piece inspired by Trooping of the Colours uniform. The Carnival backpack piece is inspired by longitude and latitude lines adorned with gold globes and planets – the world and universe both as a physical and spiritual journey. Her headdress, based on a mariner's astrolabe, cradles a globe showing the unity that is achieved with the open sharing and understanding of culture and heritage. A 5-metre hand painted silk sail flag with hand woven, heritage quality silk from Murshidabad will be printed with gold, metallic ink designs inspired by maps, compasses, universe and galaxies.

Colour Scheme

Sea/Waves – blues, turquoise, gold leaf

Shell – gold, corals, bronze, golden yellows

Queen – gold dress, headdress golds, whites, blue & greens for globe

Backpack – gold

Silk – Golden yellow, buttercup yellow, mustard, gold & bronze print

Designed by Iola Weir

NANA BURUKU

African Queen & Flag Bearer

THE PUPPETS

Four female puppets representing regions in which HRH has travelled, and reflect the communities of Greater Manchester, each a Queen of our communities. They represent different stages of woman’s life, coming of age, mid life, and elder.

Designed by Tony Mason, our African Queen draws influence from the Queen's important visits to Ghana in 1961, Nigeria 1956, & The Gambia in 1961. Inspired by ‘Nana Buruku’ a revered supreme deity in West Africa and now celebrated across the world following the migration of African people to new lands. A mother goddess, Nana Buruku is an older, wiser woman - she is a calm, benevolent, grounded representative of the earth, always acting with dignity and gentility. The puppet is made using natural materials – bamboo, cane, raffia. Her beaded skirt is inspired by African percussive instruments; as she moves, the beads collide to create percussive sounds. Her bow will be batiked and hand painted using natural dyes and reflecting patterns and textiles across the African continent and in particular designs from ABC wax – textiles designed in Tameside, Greater Manchester for Ghana.

Our Dancer and Flag bearer will wear costume drawing influence from traditional African dress and reflect motifs seen in the puppet. The flag design will be inspired by African textiles patterns and prints from across the continent.

Colour Scheme

  • Earth colours, brown, cream, natural materials
  • Deep purple, lilac

Designed by Tony Mason

PADMINI

South Asian Queen & Flag Bearer

THE PUPPETS

Four female puppets representing regions in which HRH has travelled, and reflect the communities of Greater Manchester, each a Queen of our communities. They represent different stages of woman’s life, coming of age, mid life, and elder.

Our South Asian Queen will draw influence from a woman in mid life wearing traditional dress seen in HRH’s numerous visits to the Indian sub-continent.

Her costume will be decorated in traditional embroidered fabrics from India & Pakistan and is she modelled and pays respect to the late Indian icon actress and dancer Padmini Ramachandran.

She is joined by our dance / flag bearer dressed in traditional Indian dress and Carnival costume holding a hand painted Batik flag with designs inspired by traditional textile and mehndi patterns.

Colour Scheme

  • Pinks, turquoise, jade
  • Gold and silver embroidery / jewels
  • Blue, pinks, jade, turquoise

Designed by Iola Weir

NAME TBC

Caribbean Queen & Flag Bearer

THE PUPPETS

Four female puppets representing regions in which HRH has travelled, and reflect the communities of Greater Manchester, each a Queen of our communities. They represent different stages of woman’s life, coming of age, mid life, and elder.

Our beautiful Caribbean queen represents the energy of our youth – a nod to HRH’s Caribbean tour of 1966. Referencing Caribbean cultures, she is inspired by the tropical and lush lands of the Caribbean, adorned with flowers native to the Caribbean and surrounded by Hummingbirds. We celebrate Peter Minshall’s first queen costume – Hummingbird.

The puppet will be dressed in clothing inspired by traditional Carnival characters from Trinidad & Tobago (Dame Lorraine) and Barbados (Mother Sally, representing fertility).

She will be joined by a dancer and flag bearer that will wear traditional Caribbean Carnival costume with colour scheme sympathetic to those reflected in the puppet (backpack costume). The flag design will take references from the Puppet and Caribbean Carnival heritage.

Colour Scheme

• Hummingbird colours, greens, deep blues, purples

• Flowers native to Caribbean, deep pink, orange, yellow

• Lush nature, shades of green Designed by Chris Anderson

Aurora

'Mad fer it' Manchester Queen & Flag Bearer

THE PUPPETS

Four female puppets representing regions in which HRH has travelled, and reflect the communities of Greater Manchester, each a Queen of our communities. They represent different stages of woman’s life, coming of age, mid life, and elder.

Representing the spirit of Manchester’s internationally renowned Club and Music scene going ‘Mad fer it’ in the Hacienda days, our Manchester Queen will nod to 80/90’s club wear, with a vibrant puppet that is able to dance and move freely to Mancunian tunes and beats.

Our dancer and flag bearer will don 90’s dance clothes featuring Danny Henry, a Manchester club and Carnival dance legend.

Colour Scheme

Bright pink, blue, purples

Designed by Iola Weir

Percussion and Brass

THE GLOBAL GROOVES BLOCO

A 150 strong Carnival band, inspired by the colours of the regalia at Trooping the Colour. Imagine a Brazilian carnival colliding with a Whit Walk. A joyful community taking their story to the streets, sound-tracked by the warmth of a brass band fused with a samba bloco. Plus a nod to Greater Manchester’s popular music traditions.

Brass

Our 50+ strong youth brass section will consist of young members from the European youth championship band Wardle Academy Brass. Playing a new musical arrangement by MD Jack Tinker, we will explore music drawing influence from Manchester’s rich popular musical heritage, international Carnival and traditional Whit Friday style brass band marches.

Performers will wear traditional brass costume with jade coloured shirts inspired by Trooping of the Colour sashes within the traditional military uniform. The scheme also highlights jade accents in the percussionists' costumes. Each performer will be ‘crowned’ in a piece inspired by traditional Indian/Pakistani parading brass band headwear, each with a feather reflecting headwear worn by the Queen during Trooping of the Colour parades.

Colour Scheme

  • Inspired by ‘Trooping the Colour’
  • Black trousers
  • Red & black waistcoat
  • Black dicky bow
  • Jade shirt
  • Headdress, black, red, gold, jade

Percussion

Featuring young musicians from the internationally renowned Future Leaders arts leadership programme joined by other players from across Greater Manchester, this Carnival percussion group will weave together a variety of international percussion styles and phrasing in new pieces of music to complement the brass arrangements and reflect the cultures of Greater Manchester. Led by musical director and Future Leaders Alumni, Emma Marsh.

The performers' costume will be created from hand dyed, batiked, and printed cotton inspired by the north-eastern Brazilian Blocos. The design is inspired by African textiles and motifs that will repeat across the Global Grooves Bloco section. Headdresses are inspired by the power of the Orixa Xangô, lord of fire, lightning, thunder, but also of music, drumming, and dance.

Colour Scheme

  • Carrying on Trooping the Colour inspiration and African colour scheme (Xangô – red and brown)
  • Intense red, scarlet, golden yellow, jade, deep brown, orange

Costume Elements Designed by Emily Wood

Percussion Director - Emma Marsh

Melody Director - Jack Tinker

Bloco Performers - Global Grooves Future Leaders and selected players from across Greater Manchester.

Brass Ensemble - Wardle Academy Brass Band

DANCERS

THE GLOBAL GROOVES BLOCO 

A 150 strong brass, percussion and dance Carnival band, Inspired by the colours of the regalia at Trooping the Colour. Imagine a Brazilian carnival colliding with a Whit Walk. A joyful community taking their story to the streets, sound-tracked by the warmth of a brass band fused with a samba bloco, and a nod to Greater Manchester’s popular music traditions.

Dancers

Our group of ten international Greater Manchester based dancers will perform Intricate, energetic dance routines choreographed by Adriana Rosso specially for the new musical arrangements. Dancers from various cultural backgrounds will have space to add their own dance flavours to this routine creating a truly international troop.

Their costume will be created to enhance movement styles and allow for big, bold choreography; a red jersey top, cut into round the neck with scrap fabrics from other costumes tied into the top with golden beads and sequins. Wide legged silk trousers – hand painted and batiked with designs from Bloco costumes and a belt made with scraps of fabric from costumes created in other sections – lightweight beads and light reflecting crystals and diamantes to be added adding movement and sparkle and referencing our African Queen puppet.

Colour Scheme

  • Main colour the blue/jade from the sash in trooping colour
  • Red top, red beaded belt
  • Jade trousers with accents of red, scarlet, orange and golden yellows

Costume Designed by Emily Wood

Choreographer - Adriana Rosso

Performers - TBC

CRINOLINE DANCERS

THE GLOBAL GROOVES BLOCO

A 150 strong brass, percussion and dance Carnival band, inspired by the colours of the regalia at Trooping the Colour. Imagine a Brazilian carnival colliding with a Whit Walk. A joyful community taking their story to the streets, sound-tracked by the warmth of a brass band fused with a samba bloco, and a nod to Greater Manchester’s popular music traditions.

Crinoline Dancers

Representing the ten districts of greater Manchester, our Jubilee Dance ambassadors will perform a new choreography in beautiful ‘Baiana style’ dresses.

The floating giant costumes will be created in hand woven, Indian Fairtrade silk from Murshidabad in West Bengal.

Ten regal style dresses will feature layers of hand dyed & batiked motifs inspired by textiles in Africa & reflect costumes worn in the percussion section.

Ten dresses will be hand painted and printed onto silk in gold metallic ink, patterns inspired by peacock feathers and Indian textiles linked to our lead Carnival Queen at the head of the parade. Inspired by Osun the west African goddess/deity representing divinity, beauty, femininity, fertility and love, and the flow of fresh sweet water from the river Osun in Nigeria of which shares her name.

Each dancer will feature a headdress inspired by crowns and headwear from around the world, including northeast Brazil, North and east Africa, and recycled saris from the Indian sub continent.

Colour Scheme

  • Colours inspired by Trooping the Colour and referencing the golden colour scheme and silks from the Queen.
  • Red, scarlet, orange, golden yellow, jade.
  • Golden yellow, buttercup yellow, mustard, gold and bronze metallic print.

Costume Designed by Emily Wood

Choreographer - Adriana Rosso

Performers selected from each of the ten Greater Manchester districts

Silk fan backpacks

Giant 2mtrs x 4.5metre silk backpack pieces will be worn by members of our community performers from Greater Manchester. The costume will be shaped like a giant fan that wraps up on itself then unfolds to reveal beautiful batik / hand painted silk similar to a peacocks tail and Chinese fan.

Designs will reflect our African, South Asian and Caribbean Queen puppets featuring textiles practice, nature, and cultures from the respective regions. The costumes will be hand painted onto hand woven Fairtrade Indian silk from Murshidabad in West Bengal.

Colour Scheme

  • Africa - purple, lilac, shades of brown, mustard, golden yellow
  • India - pink, jade, turquoise, blues
  • Caribbean- green, purple, pink, jade, turquoise

Costume designed by Emily Wood - Cabasa

Performers selected from three of the ten Greater Manchester districts

Community Flags

Our section of 50 x 4metre handmade silk flags will be designed and performed members of our community from Norbrook Community Centre in Wythenshawe and communities across the borough of Oldham. Supported by Manchester based Carnival artists, they will explore ideas and stories of the Monarch and their international communities and reflect these in several new stunning designs.

Performers will be in uniformed costume in black trousers and colourful hand dyed t-shirts with full Carnival face paint designs to complement their creative work.

Colour Scheme

  • Multi coloured – vibrant colourful section full of colour. Full rainbow

Flags designed, made and performed by Norbrook Youth Centre and communities from the borough of Oldham.

Lead Artists: TBC

Fabrication and concept - Emily Wood - Cabasa

FAQ's

Where will the volunteering take place?

We will be welcoming volunteers into our studio The Vale.
The address is Unit 2 Vale Mill, Micklehurst Road, Mossley, OL59JL

Limited parking is available for volunteers on site.
You can visit The Vale’s website to find directions and more here

 

What time will I be neeeded for?

All volunteers must be available for a briefing each day at 10am. Please feel free to arrive before then to help yourself to a brew and a biscuit.  Volunteer days will run until approximately 6pm. We recommend to get the most out of the days with us to allow for at least 6 hours at The Vale.

What about food and refreshments?

Light refreshments will be provided such as hot drinks and biscuits. We recommend bringing along with you a packed lunch. There is a microwave, toaster, hob, oven and grill at The Vale if you wish to prepare your own food.

What activities will I be helping with?

The Vale is a busy professional Carnival arts studio. You will be helping to support lead artists in the creation of new work for the project.

Tasks and activities will be varied depending on the particular piece that needs support in its creation. We expect LOTS and LOTS of Batik and silk painting, cutting, sticking, folding, ironing etc. From time to time we may also need to clear the studio to make way for new processes. After each day we will all chip in to preparing the space for the next day.  If you have specific skills there may be more involved tasks as the pieces take shape to assist with.

You can view a rough schedule here.

APPLY NOW!

We can’t wait to hear from you! Please fill in the application form here.

We are keen to understand why you are interested in taking part, what previous skills, experience or interests you may have. We are also collecting personal information at this point so if you are selected as a performer we can reduce the amount of paperwork and admin later and get on with making incredible art!

If you require assistance with this application form please contact us and one of our team will be able to help. If you would prefer to apply using another medium rather than a written online form then please contact us.

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Pop your email address in the box here and we’ll send you updates about our work, including how to get involved. We promise we won’t inundate your inbox, but you will be able to unsubscribe at any time.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.