What a day!

Inspire Festival 2013 went really well! A big thank you to all who came and participated – you made the day what it was.

I was rather busy all day, so only managed to snap a few photos from the day. They are now on The Photos page – feel free to have a gander. If you have any more photos you wouldn’t mind sharing, please do send them to me.

DSCF4242

Nicola’s put out her summary newsletter – you can download it here or read the text on The News page. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please let Nicola know by emailing whatsonnorthwest@hotmail.co.uk.

Plans are already afoot for next year’s festival – this time the grassy area behind the church will be themed Dreams and Nightmares. Please do get in touch with Nicola if you’re interested in helping make next year’s festival happen – many more volunteers are needed to make it a great day for all.

Plans are also afoot for keeping the community spirit going that we hope was enhanced by the festival. Our parent group, What’s On North West England, will continue to publish newsletters promoting events going on in the north west. Post your events to that facebook page or email them to whatsonnorthwest@hotmail.co.uk for inclusion in the newsletter. Our sister group, Glossop Community Group, will continue to try to bring groups together, through newsletters and occassional meetings through the year. Post your group’s information to that facebook page or email the same address, whatsonnorthwest@hotmail.co.uk, for inclusion in the newsletter.

For future updates about Inspire Festival, please follow us on Facebook Logo facebook, Twitter Logo twitter, or through our mailing list.

Gazebo Appeal

A quick note –

There are some people who are participating in the festival, and are commuting on the train, so they would really appreciate it if someone can loan them a gazebo. If you have a spare gazebo could you please bring it along?

Volunteers Needed!

Meeting tomorrow – Thursday the 1st of August, at 7:30pm.

The meeting will be held at The Globe, 144 High Street West, Glossop, Derbyshire, SK13 8HJ.

We still need volunteers to help things run well on the day – please come along if you think you can help at all. We need help in these areas:

  • Steward: supporting people on the day at any of our venues
  • Welcoming stand: hand out programmes, answer queries
  • Stage Manager
  • Workshop Manager
  • Guest Speaker Manager
  • First Aiders

If you can spare some time and would like to volunteer at the Inspire Festival please get in touch or come along to the meeting, if you can.

If you run a group or organisation, please could you let your members know, we are hoping to get lots of volunteers on the day to enable all volunteers to have regular breaks and enjoy the day.

If you would like Nicola to write that you volunteered at the festival and highlight your skills and what you did (for career purposes) she will do this.

Volunteers will get a free lunch and drinks at the venue’s café.

The more volunteers the better!

Community Leaflet

Further towards our aim of trying to provide information on as many local groups, etc, as possible to as wide an audience as we can, Nicola’s putting together a community leaflet and would love your local organisation or shop to be listed in it. We want this to be a brief, easy-to-read affair, so if you’re interested, please email the following:

  • A sentence or so describing your group
  • Contact details for anyone interested in joining your group / patronising your shop / etc

What will be accepted?

  • Information of interest and/or benefit to the community (e.g. from groups, organisations, and charities)
  • Information from local shops, market traders, and non-chain pubs

Please email the information to whatsonnorthwest@hotmail.co.uk.

Deadline: 30 June 2013

Deadline for Participants!

The closing date is nearly upon us! If you would like to have a stand or stall, give a talk or demonstration, or in some other way participate for the festival (aside from volunteering and coming along to enjoy the festival day), please note your deadline to submit a proposal is:

Sunday, the 30th of June, 2013!

If you want to get involved, please email whatsonnorthwest@hotmail.co.uk before the end of Sunday if you haven’t already!

Also remember there’s a meeting tomorrow night (Thursday, 27 June) – so if you want to chat in person about your idea, feel free to pop along to that!

Appeal For More Artists – Join in!

We are still looking for artists who wish to take part in the festival and promote themselves – do hurry, though, our closing date is 30 June 2013!

We are looking for…

Drama and Theatre

Click for more …
mime
tragedy and comedy masks

  • Drama & Theatre
  • Carnival
  • Circus
  • Comedy
  • Mime
  • Pantomines
  • Plays
  • Puppetry
  • Street Theatre

Film and Video

Click for more …
student making computer animation
film_popturfdotcom_sm

  • All film and video
  • Animation
  • Documentary

Crafts

Click for more …
crafter working
crafting

  • All crafts

Visual Art

Click for more …
sand sculptor
graffiti

  • Illustration
  • Live Art
  • Graffiti
  • Mixed Media
  • Painting
  • Public Art
  • Sculpture

Words

Click for more …
word art

  • Performance poetry
  • Poetry
  • Storytelling

Please pass this on to anyone you may feel would be interested. One of the festival’s aims is to help artists to promote themselves.

The festival is run by volunteers and is not-for-profit.

Next Meeting

meeting

Image by snigl3t.

Our next meeting will be held at 7:30pm Thursday the 27th of June 2013. The venue is The Globe, 144 High Street West, Glossop, Derbyshire, SK13 8HJ. All are welcome.

This meeting will include:

  • An update of the festival
  • Information on becoming a volunteer
  • A chance to make suggestions and discuss the festival

If you are a participant in the festival you can also come along to talk about and promote your group and what you will be doing at the festival.

The posters and leaflets are ready to distribute; we would appreciate any help with this.

Venue change

woods

Image by CB_27.

A word from Nicola about a venue change for the festival:


It is with deep regret that I have had to move the Enchanted Woodland Theme, planned as one of the Inspire Festival activities, to the grassy area at the back of the church. The same activities will still be taking place; we will just not be able to enjoy the ambience of the woodland.

The Enchanted Woodland Parade will still be taking place; the route will take us around George Street Wood to Harehills Park.

Click for more …

Reasons for the changing from George Street Wood to the grassy area at the back of the church.

The land where George Street Wood is situated is land that has no known owner.

A local resident and his wife are trying to claim the land by adverse possession and develop the land into a campsite and motor home tourist facility.

Acquiring land by adverse possession is the process by which a person who is not the legal owner of land can become its owner after having exclusively occupied it for a specified period of time.

Since announcing that Inspire Festival will be using George Street Wood for the Enchanted Woodland Theme, I have been bombarded with intimidating emails. Emails have also been sent to my place of work, some of my contacts and Festival participants, the councillors who donated funding, the council which has donated the Small Arts Grant, and also the lady who has very kindly supported me by creating and running the Inspire Festival website. I don’t want anyone related to the Festival to be treated in this way, which is why I have now come to the conclusion to move the woodland themed activities to the back of the church. Please accept my apologies if this decision causes you any disappointment.

Good news

The same activities will be taking place a few feet away. We will not be able to enjoy the ambience of the woodland in an organised way, but it is entirely legal for you to go into the Wood. Please be careful not to damage any wildlife, trees, or boundary fences.

Friends of George Street Wood

The general public currently enjoys George Street Wood and has done so since at least 1935.

Friends of George Street Wood is a group of local people that is campaigning for George Street Wood to remain open to the public by appealing to High Peak Borough Council for the land to be a designated Local Green Space which would give it the same protection as green belt; HPBC is proposing to do this in its new Local Plan currently in development. FoGSW has also applied to Derbyshire County Council for the land to be designated a Town/Village Green which would protect it for the public in perpetuity.

In order for anyone to claim the land by adverse possession, they have to show exclusive use of it for a minimum of 12 years. Friends of George Street Wood is therefore encouraging the public to continue to use the land because every time it is used the adverse claim clock reverts to zero. FoGSW holds regular events on the land in order to preserve its public access. Legal advice obtained by FoGSW has confirmed that the resident and his wife do not own the land, despite placing a fence around it, and will not do so until they can demonstrate that they have had exclusive use of it for 12 years.

If you would like to know more about Friends of George Street Wood and its campaign, please email: georgestreetwoods@hotmail.co.uk.


Please note that our main venue, Central Methodist Church, is not changing. Most of the activity of the festival will happen there. Harehills Park, also known as the Sandhole, is the park along Philip Howard Road.

Meeting Postponed

green pharmacy cross

Photo by ell brown.

Hello All,

The meeting for the Inspire Festival has been postponed. I am going through a period of illness and awaiting test result. I will hopefully have things sorted out soon and be back to normal, and then I can re-arrange the meeting. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Kind Regards,
Nicola Worswick