Festivals to the rescue!

Despite the economic downturn and the doom and gloom, we can always turn to our vibrant arts sector to bring a bit of joy and magic back to our hearts.

• The York Mela Festival was on the 11th of May doubling its attendance figures of the previous year.
• The full Shebang Festival is a free one day festival in Mansfield and includes circus and acrobatic performances.
• Nottingham Poetry Festival is going ahead dispite losing all its funding.

What's more, there are new festivals popping up!

A Blues, Jazz, World and Caribbean music festival will have 5 stages hosted on the 2nd of July as part of the Ipswich Music Weekend.

This year the dream of bringing a festival to Wolverhampton has been realised. The Midlands Fringe festival has the vision of bringing "a bit of Edinburgh magic" with 15 shows from 25th 27th July (2025).

It just shows how crucial all forms of art are to our wellbeing and how much they are of cultural significance. 

Personally, I feel that funding grass roots events such as these are money well spent.  It is a false economy to cut funding when wellbeing has such a large impact on public health.