where local parents meet
Boomfest was a great success with lots to do for families with children of all ages.
The Weston-super-Mum arena was well attended on the two days that the weather allowed and, by Sunday, word had really got around about our baby feeding and changing area and it was a thrill to see so many people use the facility. Our arts and crafts area inspired the imagination and it was paintings and drawings galore. Our tipi tent was decorated fully too.
None of this would have been possible without so many willing hands, members of the community who gave their time and energy over the three days, so we’d like to thank all the mums and dads who helped out in so many ways: setting up, donating materials and furnishings and inspiring the children to create their own art. You are all very special and make this community what it is!
Thanks also to Conceptwear, who provided our pink Weston-super-Mum jackets and to printing.com on Locking Road who did us proud with a huge, personalised banner.
The three facepainters were excellent but don’t take our word for it, look at some of the evidence.
On Friday, Victoira Ayshford was our facepainter:
On Saturday, Klair Palmer from Magic Faces by Klair:
And on Sunday, Sam Maher from Dotty Faces.
Clare Kingsbury-Bell:
Jake and I spent most of our Saturday at Boomfest and he's only just stopped asking to go back. With just his two years’ experience of life, he easily recognised a special place just perfect for play.
In between his frequent visits to the ice cream stand, he made sure he tried out just about every piece of play equipment and activity there was.
Bewildered by face painting and baffled by hula hoops, he bopped along to the bands and tried to copy the dancers.
But the highlight of the day was overwhelmingly Colourscape. Uneasy at first in the entrance, he then ran around non-stop for more than 30 minutes bouncing off walls and giggling. I'm sure he thought he was inside a bouncy castle. The only tears of the day came when I insisted we finally leave.
Billed as a festival to celebrate some of the work of young people, it felt like much more - a festival to celebrate just being young.
Karen Blake:
This weekend just gone, Weston-super-Mare proved it could rival any festival Bristol can offer when Boomfest exploded into Clarence Park, and I was really proud to be associated with it as part of Weston-super-Mum. There was lots of work to do before with gathering and borrowing the stuff for setting up, taking a trip to The Scrapstore in Bristol to get materials and making the Tipi and giant jigsaw mural that would be decorated throughout the weekend. But all the preparation was so worth it. I was inspiring to see so much creativity, friendship and teamwork throughout the course of the weekend.
I had SUCH an amazing time and met some wonderful kids and parents who threw themselves into the arty activities with gusto. It was hard work, but what a great event for us to be part of. I really hope we can be part of this again next year, so fingers crossed that Boomsatsuma youth co-operative can manage to raise the funds they need to run this fantastic event again.
April Lewis:
I came only for about 4 hours on Sunday as we were in Wales on day one and two on a family holiday. Glad I removed myself from the holiday washing as personally I enjoyed the colour tunnel with my boys as I am sure lots did. It was something completely different to anything I have ever done with them and their faces were truly amazed and fascinated inside the tunnels. I wouldn't have wanted to miss it and it was thanks to Mark Bradshaw’s filming of it seen on Facebook.
It was also great fun in the Play forum area too with lots going on. Aaron particularly liked all the equipment there to play on forgetting about the entertainment which lots of older children were enjoying.
The main stage was great to here different bands and again some entertainment for the children to win an ice-cream.
And lastly, not that I am biased, the Weston-super-Mum area where I thoroughly enjoyed getting arty with my 2 year old who after his painting was extremely proud and carried his work around whilst playing for the rest of the afternoon.
Most excitedly, I thought about starting a collage and just thought I might be doing it alone. But had two girls join in and do it themselves with a little steering or was there? The girls, aged 6 and 9, got really got involved in a themed piece of work, which began by me asking, ‘What does this orange round cut out circle (almost see through, shiny sweet wrapper type, that you would get inside Quality Street), make you think about?’ Instantly the 6 year old girl said, ‘Fire.’ The piece grew and evolved with communication between me and the girls on what they felt should happen and what colour and textures could they add.
Certainly an afternoon I will never forget I loved the imaginations working and the personal questions that they asked each other, making sure they were both happy before the next piece got glued or placed.
Keith Ramsey:
I went to Boomfest with a fair degree of trepidation. I'd agreed to take some photographs for Weston-super-Mum and, although I'd photographed one event for them before, this was much bigger, with far more room for error.
As it turned out, I needn't have worried; the atmosphere was relaxed and the company was good. Everything went well and I even took one or two pictures that I was quite pleased with. My only real regret was that it was impossible to see and record everything that was on offer.
I think it's fair to say that Boomfest was a success. It was new type of event for Weston-super-Mare, and I think it may symbolise the revival of community spirit in the town. I certainly hope so, and I hope that it returns next year. One request: if it does come back, please can we have the bigger version of Colourscape?
Lucy Frampton:
My kids had a great time and I thought the organisers got it spot on with providing entertainment and activities for all ages. We particularly loved the fantastic theatre performance on Saturday night. It has been recreated many times by Reuben in the sitting room with all the props. Also thought the play rangers were fab, Colourscape and the Banghra band at the end were fantastic. Liked the risks they took with slightly less obvious stuff and of course the Weston-super-Mum stall.
On Facebook, Laura said, "Challenge Lestie to skip on stage, and you to host a dinner party!" Sorry Laura, this is the closest we got to this one #fail:
Swinging Poi at Deer Park Stage
@CocoBrownsCafe tweeted, "I want to know what your favourite food & drink was or just the best you see @BigChillFest. Inspiration for me!"
Unicycle
Proud on our stilts 
Look! I can do it!
I learned a few things:
· That a wheelbarrow adorned with soft and colourful blankets is a very good idea when you have a small child who may want to have a rest/get noticed.
· That it’s sensible to have no plans and to go with the flow
· To eat little and often
· To get there as close to the beginning of the festival as you can, so as to ease small child in gently.
· To not worry if she wants to play in the tent when it first goes up. This should be seen as part of that acclimatisation process; there’s plenty of time for the Madness.
· To dress her in patterned clothing and definitely nothing white
· That asking people to set challenges is really very enjoyable, especially when it comes to the inevitable tweeting-through-festival.
So, as we prepare for our second festival of the summer – The Big Chill at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Herefordshire – I invite you to link in to their website (link below), have a look around and set us more challenges to do while we’re there. Again, take into consideration that I have a 5 year old with me and limited financial resources.
The Big Chill has a festival within a festival, The Little Chill, which has ‘entertainment laid on especially for younger audiences as well as housing the family camping area and facilities’ - and this is where we are sure to be spending much of our time.
The Little Chill sounds very exciting, with illustrators and authors, dance and drama workshops, a circus area, the Enchanted Garden WITH GIANT UV BUTTERFLIES J, bands and, get this, Caberet! Tom Baker will be there. Tom Baker! One of my Doctor Whos.
The link to the Little Chill is here.
I’ll be documenting much of this via twitter @Dr_Reba
What do you want us to do? We will endeavour to rise to the occasion.
Boomfest is an exciting new 3 day festival for children, young people and families and will be held from Friday 19th – Sunday 21st August in Weston-super-Mare.
The FREE festival will offer a variety of performances and workshops for all ages including live music, dance and free running, theatre, film, comedy, performance poetry, graffiti, BMX-ing, skateboarding and art exhibitions.
One of the festival headline acts is Weapons of Sound and we will be working with them to create a new record for the World’s Largest Junk Orchestra!
We hope to break the current world record of 617 and create of a new world record of 750!
To help us meet the criteria laid down by Guinness World Records we need 15 - 20 responsible adult volunteers to be independent supervisors between 3.30pm – 5.30pm on Saturday 20th August in Clarence Park, Weston-super-Mare.
Their responsibilities would include submitting a signed statement confirming;
ü the number of people attempting the record within their allocated grid (a maximum of 50 people in each grid)
ü all the participants within their grid actively took part in the record attempt
ü all the participants were proficient musicians
Registration for the record attempt will take place throughout the day at Boomfest and participants will be allocated in advance their grid.
Guided by the Main Stage MC the participants will then move to their grids in front of the Main Stage and this is where the independent supervisors will undertake their responsibilities under the guidance of a designated overall Independent Supervisor.
If you want to join us for this amazing event please contact Andy Jeffrey at andy.jeffrey@n-somerset.gov.uk or call 07775 027468.
An exciting new FREE festival for children
and young people in
Friday 19th – Sunday 21st August 2011
Clarence Park,
Boomfest is an exciting new 3 day festival for children, young people and families and will be held from Friday 19th – Sunday 21st August in
The FREE festival will offer a variety of performances and workshops for all ages including live music, dance and free running, theatre, film, comedy, performance poetry, graffiti, BMX-ing, skateboarding and art exhibitions. There’s a whole programme of family activity too including lots of great events for the under 5s.
Festival organisers have been overwhelmed with over 100 applications from all over
The programme has been largely arranged by four young apprentices, aged 18 to 22, who run a youth arts co-op called boomsatuma.
Apprentice Amy Davis said “Boomfest is the most fantastic opportunity for young people to own their own festival. I hope as many as possible will get involved.”
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME ANNOUNCEMENT
Early Years
An exciting programme of activities for 0-5 years from 12 noon – 4pm daily including arts and crafts, fashion, music, soft toy play area, dance and storytelling. With the North Somerset Play Forum, North Somerset Children’s Centre team, and Weston-super-Mum.
Live Bands
boomsatsuma Mainstream project auditioned over 60 bands during the last 6 months offering the monthly winners a day in a professional recording studio. Watch the very best bands play live from 5pm – 9pm on Friday 19th, and throughout the weekend on the Main Stage and Big Top there’s live music, dj-ing and mc-ing including talented musicians and bands from
SLAMbassadors
Fashion
An amazing Fashion Show on Saturday 20th with young people from Girls Allowed, North Somerset Youth Service, Barnardo’s, and the
Dance
Catch hugely talented local dance crews in an exciting programme with headliner Tommy Franzen from BBC’s “So You Think You Can Dance”, top
With workshops for all ages in Breaking, Street Dance, Contemporary, Capoeira, and Parkour/Free running displays from 4pm in the Dance Tent daily.
Weapons of Sound
Having played major festivals all over the world, Weapons of Sound are internationally acclaimed as the
Ever wanted to be a World Record Holder? Join Weapons of Sound as Boomfest goes for a new record of 750 people for the World’s Largest Junk Orchestra on Saturday 20th at 4.30pm!
Colourscape
Colourscape is a visually stunning labyrinth of huge inflatable chambers creating a truly remarkable and unique performance space. Open Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st, visitors can open up their senses and stimulate their creativity with a variety of performances and workshops.
Over the two days there will be a range of musicians performing inside Colourscape. Michael Ormiston is
Only their second visit ever to the South West! Adults £3, Children (under 16) £2.
Beastie
Do you want to be let into a jaw dropping secret and catch a glimpse of something amazing? Bring your children along to say good-bye to Beastie on Saturday 20th, the very special new friend that children aged 6-10 all over Weston will have had an extraordinary adventure with this summer.
Bash Street Theatre
Bash Street Theatre perform their internationally renowned silent slapstick comedy The Station on Saturday 20th at 6pm. Set in dilapidated railway station in the age of steam locomotives, be prepared for a dramatic train crash, a daredevil rescue and some great comedy action from this award-winning street theatre company.
Rotations
Rotations is a unique fusion of BMX flatlanding, breakin’ and contemporary dance, creating a visually thrilling performance on Sunday 21st of high-energy twists, flips, breaks and world class BMX tricks that is pulsing with energy, verve and invention.
Coneheads
Join the Natural Theatre Company and develop your Conehead character in a fun workshop and perform at Boomfest with full costume, make up and camera!! No experience necessary. Come and find out how to be a Natural on Sunday 21st!
Pierunder Exhibition
The Pierunder exhibition is a showcase for talented young artists from across
The festival site will include a Main Stage, Circus Big Top, Dance Tent and marquees throughout the park offering performances, workshops and activities for children, young people and families.
A full programme will be announced in August.
Festival Partners include:
