Families in Bath are celebrating the good news that Arts Council England have confirmed a grant offer of £25,000 towards the costs of this year’s Bath Carnival project.
The annual project includes months of carnival arts workshops aimed at children and young families and culminates with a family friendly free party spread across Sydney Gardens and the Bath Recreation Ground. Each year the highlight of the project is the huge carnival procession which meanders through the city centre and includes hundreds of local school children.
Arts Council England South West made the announcement on Twitter: “Congratulations to Bath Carnival for £25k National Lottery money to build on their community project, a carnival procession and festival!”
The Bath MP, Wera Hobhouse, said, “The team behind Bath Carnival deserve a massive congratulations for securing this funding. I attended the Bath Carnival last year, and it was a real highlight of the summer; colourful, creative and happy!
“It’s not just one day either; they have creative workshops running for two and a half months prior to the Carnival that are open to everyone. If you are a business owner reading this, or an individual who wants to be part of a fantastic community arts project, then please do consider supporting them!”
The Bath Carnival 2018 project kicks off in May with a team of artists delivering a new programme of carnival arts workshops to schools, charities, community groups and members of the public, with participants experiencing dance, music and costume making.
With 17 groups including ten schools already signed up to the programme, the project organisers have been recruiting additional artists to meet the high demand.
Hannah Southfield and Amy Palmer Fry from the Creative Collective Bath will join lead artists Abi Kennedy and Adrian Spinola to help lead the costume making workshops.
Amy Palmer Fry said: “We can’t wait to get started, we’ve just received the new costume designs from Abi and they are looking awesome. The kids are really going to look amazing at this year’s parade.”
New for this year’s carnival is the ‘Buggie Bloc’, with young parents invited to jazz up their children’s prams and pushchairs at communal workshops, so they can parade with them in the procession.
A Local Giving page has been setup to help raise more funds for the community project, with individuals and businesses encouraged to signup as a Local Giving fundraiser and set their own individual target.
The page currently has two accounts raising funds for the carnival (Zest Bootcamp and Foodbev), and has already raised £152.
Businesses interested in supporting Bath Carnival can learn more about the sponsorship packages on offer when the new website goes live next week. In the meantime requests for further information should be sent to email hidden; JavaScript is required.
It has been a strong start to the year for Bath Carnival who were also awarded Volunteer Team of the Year at the Chair’s Community Awards last month and have been nominated for Best Event at the Bath Life Awards.
Bath Carnival takes place on Saturday 21 July, with community workshops taking place from the beginning of May.
To make a donation to Bath Carnival visit www.localgiving.org/charity/bathcarnival