Made With Many’s Well Creative Festival was a glowing success!

Well Creative Festival was co-produced with Made With Many’s Canvas youth forum, to be a fun, free and friendly festival celebrating creativity with residents and families of Wellingborough and was made possible by funding from Arts Council England, thanks to National Lottery players.

This free festival attracted visitors of all ages and abilities who experienced a day packed with activities, art installations, live performances and illuminations that created a lot of excitement and a joyful atmosphere throughout the town centre.

With a day of glorious sunshine, visitors were able to fully enjoy the fun-filled programme of arts and entertainment, with some families staying the whole day to witness the magical illuminations from dusk onwards.

There were thousands of arts interactions across the day, with the Swansgate Centre experiencing a significant rise in footfall from comparable weekends this month.

Made With Many are thrilled that the festival was so well received by local people and want to thank everyone who got involved, including the dedicated Volunteers.

Victoria Bell, Co-Director of Made With Many, said: “This festival was all about bringing people together to enjoy new cultural experiences and it was so rewarding to see so many smiling faces and dancing feet on the day in Wellingborough town centre! It was simply wonderful to see families just being in the moment and engaging with each other, the artists and lots of new experiences.”

Whilst it was sunny outside, indoor spaces were also bustling with budding artists and crafters in creative workshops Sunburst Books, Artsters and Fun Fairy Twinkle Lights with many participants proudly taking their unique creations home, including MP Gen Kitchen who threw herself into craft activities such as badge-making alongside local children.

Interactive storytelling with Mike Payton in Wellingborough Library had children transfixed and parents giggling at his weird and wonderful tales throughout the day. SURGE VR also captured people’s imaginations with a big queue full of eager participants waiting to explore virtual realms in the Swansgate Centre.

Crowds gathered on the mosaic outside Castello Lounge to witness the magnificent Spark! drummers who delighted audiences with their powerful yet whimsical show, even involving Wellingborough’s Mayor, Cllr Raj Mishra, who had a go at some drumming.

Other highlights included walkabout acts Ember the dragon and Ocho the octopus who wound their way through the town centre swirling their tail or tentacles around unsuspecting shoppers, bringing a huge deal of excitement along Market Street, especially when they glowed in the evening.

The festival ended on a high with the Groove and Glow disco trike, who shared that the events’ audience was their best ever response to the performance - with an impromptu disco where children waved glowsticks and showed off some seriously cool moves, whilst grown-ups boogied down to some retro 70’s funk. Some of the children were even trying to follow the disco on wheels back to the festival green room hoping for an after party!

Vicky Frayard, Co-Director of Made With Many, added: “If you enjoyed the day and want to see more exciting events like this in Wellingborough, please share your feedback via our online Audience Survey so that we can create more fantastic opportunities like Well Creative Festival. Completing our surveys is one of the best ways to support future community-powered projects, and to help us secure funding for more exciting arts opportunities.”

The success of Well Creative Festival was also supported by Made With Many’s dedicated volunteers and Canvas youth group members, who helped with poster distribution, festival stewarding as well as creating the festival’s Shed of Culture with The Creative Place.

Made With Many’s, Lily Viney who produced the festival commented: “Our Canvas Youth Forum have spent months of sessions with us, selecting artists to delight local families, plan and prepare. They all came on the day with a lot of enthusiasm and took a lot of pride in the work they put in, even enjoying participating and dancing along to the Spark! drummers. We are very proud of their achievements and very much appreciate all of our festival volunteers who were so generous with their time to help make the day a great experience.”

Made With Many Co-Director Victoria Bell added: “We are extremely grateful to our partners the Swansgate Shopping Centre and Wellingborough Library who provided space and support on the day, as well as to Wellingborough Town Council who allowed us use of their roadside advertising spaces on every major route into Wellingborough. Thanks also go to the Nene Valley Community Responders, who helped us deal with any first aid requirements on the day. Working together with local organisations like this is how we make these fantastic events happen”

To find out more about future Made With Many events and opportunities, please visit www.madewithmany.org and sign up to the newsletter.