A carnival delight at Royston Arts Festival 2016

This year’s Royston Arts Festival, brought to you by Creative Royston, ran from 23-25 September and closed on Sunday night with its Festival Finale Concert. After 3 days filled with activities, performances and exhibitions on the theme of ‘carnival’, plus a few warm up events the previous weekend, every event was of note.

Special highlights include:
• Community Arts Event & Carnival Procession drew the crowds to Priory Memorial Gardens in Royston, with 285 joining the procession, estimating more than 700 enjoyed the afternoon event. No.3 Royston brought us a craft fair while Glazed Creations were a big hit with their bunting painting workshop. Garden City Samba led the carnival procession with Standon Morris and the GSTARS Dragon. They also performed in the arena and Molly Chenoa gave a taster of Royston MusicFest ‘16.

• Royston MusicFest ’16, Royston’s first town-wide live music event, celebrated music across genres from the region with over 100 music lovers, in some of the best pubs and venues the town has to offer. Local girls Melody Causton and Molly Chenoa were a big hit, alongside returning artists from 2015’s youth gig Ed Tattersall and Steve Winch and The Inception.

• The Festival Finale Concert was a sell-out success, with ticket sales closing the day before. More local talent shone through with performances from Meridian and Greneway Schools and Royston Youth Choir. Star trumpeter and Creative Royston President, Alison Balsom OBE introduced the concert. The Royston Town Band Development Band and Royston Choral Society joined us this year and as always the audience had the chance to join in the singing!

Claire Somerville, Chair of Creative Royston commented: “It’s been such a delight to see the community come together for Royston Arts Festival 2016. From the schools in the carnival, to the local businesses for MusicFest and the many arts groups involved, it’s been a great achievement. Thousands of people have attended events and activities across the town and the 'carnival' theme inspired a wealth of fun activities, performances and exhibitions. I'd like to thank everyone who has been involved, especially all the volunteers without whom the festival would not happen.”

“I always love seeing the artistic talents of the town shine during the festival. This year we wanted to help create a vibrant focal point for the festival on the Saturday, from which people would also explore the other events going on around the town, such as the photography and arts exhibitions in the Town Hall. I’m happy to say it seems to have helped bring in record numbers to these exhibitions in particular. From the Community Event and Procession to the Kiddie Crafts sessions; art exhibitions to a musical pub crawl; not forgetting the choral and musical excellence of the Finale concert, it is a real pleasure to see it so well attended. We look forward to discussing the successes of the festival and future improvements with event organisers at our consultation evening next month.”

Creative Royston will be holding an informal consultation evening at The Old Bull Inn, Royston at 7:00pm-9:00pm on Thursday 6th October. Anyone who ran an event linked to the festival or interested in getting involved is invited to please come along to discuss how this year’s festival went and what improvements could be made in future. Email Pam at community@creativeroyston.org to reserve a place.

We are also inviting everyone that attended an event or exhibition to please complete a feedback form online - http://www.creativeroyston.org/?page_id=1374. As a volunteer-led organisation, feedback helps us secure sponsorship and funding for Royston Arts Festival and other arts events throughout the year.

Photo (c) Terry Hartga

For more information visit http://www.creativeroyston.org/