Fantastic Fringe Finale 2015 – 20th June

The Fantastic Fringe Finale Community Day is packed with activities for people of all ages.

The Fringe Community Parade led by B Arts, starts by the Children’s play area in Hanley Park at 11.45am and will go down Boughey Rd to the Leek Rd site of Staffordshire University to arrive at about 12pm.

There will be lots to see and do on Leek Road. Activities will take place at Staffordshire University and Stoke on Trent Sixth Form College. This is the plan for the day so far……

Get creative in the “make it” zones:

Face painting and Henna art

clay flowerWorkshops:

  • animation
  • clay flower-making with Rita from the British Ceramic Biennial,
  • hands on clay with Etruria Artists potters wheel
  • drumming
  • Jasmine flower garlands (1 to 2pm)

Check out the “entertainment” zones:

market

  • Live Final of #StaffsFringeTalent
  • local business and craft markets

 

big hero 6 film poster

 

 

Family FILM show at 3pm – Big Hero 6

 

 

 

Afro-Brew band logoMusic from:

  • Afro-Brew
  • Steel for Stoke
  • Stoke on Trent Sixth Form College students

 

Have fun in the outdoor “action” zone:

sack race photo

  • bouncy castles – one for young children, one for older children
  • tombola
  • egg and spoon race
  • tug of war
  • sack race

 

Talk, listen and learn at the “Info” Zone:

people in communities

  • find out about the Community Plan for Shelton area and share your ideas
  • learn about Etruria Industrial Museum history from volunteers in Victorian dress
  • Give your views on the plans for Hanley Park
  • NHS health information
  • youth and adult education advice
  • meet the University Quarter Community Action Network
  • Look at the plans for Staffordshire University campus developments and have your questions answered.

art show posterView the exhibitions:

  • tours of the University’s student Show and Tell Art and Design show
  • Stoke on Trent Sixth Form College student Art showphoto of art exhibition

picnic

Grab an ice cream from the van!

Bring a picnic or a bit a money for refreshments.

baby changing symbolaccess symbol

 

 

 

If you have got any questions about access please phone or email.

Tel: 01782 294415

Email: factnews @staffs.ac.uk

Photos from Fantastic Fringe Finale in previous years give you an idea of what to expect!

Come and Sing……Fringe workshop

  • Location: at the Art Stop Shop in Stoke town centre

Come and Sing is a friendly workshop for all ages!

singingIf you…

  • like to sing but people have said you are not good enough
  • don’t feel confident to sing on your own
  • used to sing but haven’t done it for years
  • just love singing
  • would like to learn some new songs
  • fancy singing in a group

There is no audition – everyone is welcome – all ages. You don’t need to read music. It’s just for fun. We will sing simple songs in different languages, maybe some harmonies and rounds. We will have the chance to sing outside on the London Rd Festival site in Boothen Gardens, if we want to.

Go on – give it a go! You know you want to….

group singing The workshop will be led by Fringe Festival coordinator Penny Vincent who has been in lots of choirs over the years. Penny has learnt from three excellent Natural Voice Choir leaders locally, including the wonderful Kate Barfield who runs Loud Mouth Women and Clay Chorus. Kate also plays and sings with the Boat Band who will be at the Beehive on Honeywall in Penkhull on Wednesday 4th June from 9pm.Guest singers,  fiddlers, dancers, poets and tragedians and any other contributors welcome. .

“Take Another Look” at London Rd Festival

Chris Oldham a Sculptor and photographer from Stoke, who graduated in Fine Art Graduate at Staffordshire University, is a featured artist at  London Road Festival this year. We asked him to tell us about his photographic art work for the festival.

I grew up living in West End, Stoke and know well the streets that feature in the London Road Festival Open Air Gallery. I wanted to show a different perspective on a familiar landscape.   Stoke library photo montage laid out like a planetThe theme of the festival ‘take another look’ works well for me as the pictures I make are all about seeing with a new perspective. The digital composites I make are multi-layered collages into which I build visual journeys or mental puzzles. My pictures ask the viewer to spend time reading the images and decoding the clues to the locations in the pictures or be absorbed in the shapes, textures and spaces inside the images.photo montage of building

The artworks are a surreal dreamlike interpretation of the architecture of Stoke with its stylish Victorian buildings and rows of terraced housing that go on forever. Through the use of mirroring in some of the images we get a glimpse into the in-between spaces where the pictures join together, here a Psychology thing happens and we start to see images conjured from our imaginations and viewed from our individual cultural experiences. In a mirrored tree picture I see fairy folk and the face of the messiah, in the street pictures I see giant bugs and aliens, different people might see something different, that’s part of the fun of making pictures.photo montage of buildings laid out like a butterfly

As an artist a lot of my work is about building great big sculptures from willow trees that you can go inside and experience the sculpture surrounding you, with the pictures I am still building an environment but it exists as a visual space that you explore with your mind and imagination.photo montage of building looking like a butterfly

I run a community arts company called Willowarts, building environmental art sculptures in woodlands and green spaces; we have worked with the National Trust, English Heritage, with Museums, cultural and educational centres nationwide.