PLAN FOR TWO-DAY FESTIVAL UNVEILED

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Plan for two-day festival unveiled

by Dan Martin

Organised by Leicester City Council, it will be an amalgamation of celebrations already held in the city, as well as a number of new events.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: "For the first time, we are bringing together a lot of separate events which will effectively double the size of the celebrations across the city.

"If it proves a success, as I am sure it will, we will look to make it a bigger and even better event last year."

The idea was conceived last year as part of a city council review of festival funding.

This year, the budget has been cut from £366,500 to £308,500 and will fall to £288,500 in 2014.

The events making up the City Festival will be mostly free and the mayor hopes it will become an annual event to bolster Leicester's bid to become UK City of Culture in 2017.

Humberstone Gate West and Gallowtree Gate will host the eighth annual Sports Fest on the Sunday, with coaching sessions on offer in basketball, football and boxing.

There will also be live music and dance, including Chinese dragon dancing.

On the Sunday, from 11am to 4pm many city streets will be shut so cyclists can take part in the annual Sky Ride.

On the same day the market will host Our Leicester Day, a celebration of the city's community groups, clubs and societies.

On Bank Holiday Monday, the city's history will be celebrated with the Old Town Festival at Magazine Square, Newark Houses Museum and Leicester Castle. There will be medieval re-enactments, the opening up of historic buildings and a food fair.

Leicester Mela, traditionally held in July, has been moved to the Monday and will take place around the Clock Tower with a Bollywood and Bhangra celebration of South Asian culture.

Town Hall Square will host the Journeys Festival over two days. Involving art, drama, music and poetry from refugees, it will tour the East Midlands.

Finally Orton Square, outside Curve theatre , will host End of Pier Delights on Sunday and Monday. It will be a seaside celebration for youngsters.

http://www.visitleicester.info/cityfestival/

SUMMER BONANZA AS CITY TO BE TAKEN OVER

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Summer bonanza as city to be taken over

by Adrian Troughton

A party programme to make this year's August bank holiday weekend the most spectacular the city has ever seen has been unveiled.

The bumper bank holiday bonanza, which will include the Sky Ride and the Mela, is to be the grand finale to an action-packed summer of fun.

The Summer in the City programme starts in July, with centenary celebrations at De Montfort Hall.

Culture vultures can enjoy a season of events with a Richard III theme, the chance to discover Leicester's art treasures in the newly-renovated Victorian Gallery at New Walk Museum and lots of opportunities to enjoy an event in Belgrave Hall.

The Mela, Sky Ride and the Sports Fest will form part of the City Festival – a weekend of events which also features an Old Town Festival and lots of children's activities in Orton Square.

The events – on Sunday and Monday, August 25 and 26 – will help make it the busiest bank holiday the city centre has known.

City mayor Peter Soulsby said: "This year is an opportunity for us to try out some ideas for a major new event which we hope will become an annual highlight.

"There will be sporting activities, free events for children, and plenty of opportunities to find out more about Leicester's heritage and culture."

On Sunday, August 25, Sky Ride will return on a traffic-free route through the city, with Sports Fest turning Humberstone Gate West into a sporting arena for the day.

Local community and voluntary organisations will be involved, too, with an event called "Our Leicester Day" taking place in the market.

The popular Mela takes over the city centre on Monday, August 26, with live music and dance, a bazaar in the Market Place and stalls in Gallowtree Gate.

A new festival which celebrates Leicester's heritage will bring the old town to life on bank holiday Monday, too, with activities taking place in Magazine Square and the Castle area.

On both days, there will be live music and dance on the Humberstone Gate West stage and plenty of activities for children.

But before the City Festival gets under way, there is a programme of events to commemorate the centenary of De Montfort Hall.

These events include a tea dance with Strictly Come Dancing's Len Goodman on June 16, an outdoor comedy day on July 6, live theatre in the gardens – with Babe The Sheep Pig on July 13 and The Mikado on July 14 – and a concert of popular classics followed by a fireworks display on July 20.

The best of Leicester's music scene will then be celebrated in a two-day event called Simon Says at the hall on July 27 and 28.

Events with a Richard III theme will take place all summer.

A stunning reconstruction of the face and head of the king will form the centrepiece of the Guildhall exhibition, from May 18 until June 9.Details of all the events happening in Leicester this summer can be found at: www.visitleicester.info/ summerinthecity

COMMUNITY GROUPS TAKE TO MARKET

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Community groups take to market

Nearly 100 community and voluntary groups took over a market to show off the work they do.

The second annual Our Leicester Day took place on Sunday.

It included musical performances by teenagers from the National Careers Service to Roman legionaries from the Friends of the Jewry Wall group.

John Coster, managing editor of Citizen's [sic] Eye, a community news agency, and one of the event organisers, said: "We had a great day and there was a lot of interest, given that we were competing with the city heritage day and the last day of the Paralympics.

"We had a really diverse set of groups and the feedback we got was that people were able to find out a lot of stuff about things they may not have been interested in before.

"That was really the aim – to introduce people to something new and promote all the great societies and groups we have in the city."

OUR LEICESTER DAY 2012

Today Leicester Market  is the lively venue for the second  Our Leicester Day. Voluntary and Community Sector organisations from the city and county (Leicester Council of Faiths among them) are promoting themselves and showing what they get up to, so as many people as possible can get involved in their activities. Our Leicester Day is a showcase of what goes on in and around our neighbourhood. A real diversity of activities, cultures and interests is on display, including street performers, musicians and singers among the dozens of stalls promoting organisations from all across Leicester and Leicestershire.

Last year, Our Leicester Day was plagued by Hurricane Katia. Even at a distance, Katia wreaked havoc on the displays, blowing stuff over exhibitions, ripping banners, uprooting displays and scattering literature. Never were "fliers" so appropriately named! The weather today starts milder (and warmer) than last year, which emboldens me to bring down our whole exhibition with all ten pop-up banners. But by the time I get half of them up, it's clear that even without a hurricane, the wind is going to be too strong again. The banners come back down and back into the drums. I keep the two "generic" banners up, with their feet anchored under the drums, but that doesn't work very well, so I do the best I can by tying them together. The wind is still too strong and they blow over (together) several times. They really do seem to be indestructible, thank goodness. It's inconvenient and annoying, but on other stalls it's downright dangerous. Once again, it's a minor miracle that no one gets hurt as some heavy gear goes tumbling down.

Our display is hardly excitement on stilts. I had hoped to put up something nicer, but discretion is the better part of valour, as they say! I wasn't going to run the risk of having our exhibition ruined by falling one too many times - or of it falling on someone. I was too optimistic in thinking we could do this without encountering any difficulty. It's not an outdoor exhibition and I shouldn't expect it to be like one. At least this time we have nice coverings for the tables. We share the stall today with members of the local Brahma Kumaris group (the chaps in white shirts in the photo above). Thanks to them for coming to the aid of our display whenever the wind whipped up. They have a very solid, chunky set of boards themselves, which gets blown over a couple of times before they decide to play safe and pack it away.

Our Leicester Day is certainly a nice opportunity to meet friends and colleagues active in the Voluntary and Community Sector, to make new contacts and to collect details of people who'd like to come to our future activities. But there are far fewer people here today than there were last year and I wouldn't be surprised if many of these absentees have stayed away because of concerns over health and safety issues. I brought Harry and Grace here last year and felt queasy about their safety more than once. Although today started nicely enough, I decided that I wouldn't take that risk with them this time. There was a debrief shortly after the first Our Leicester Day last year at which I raised the matter of health and safety, that it wasn't a secure environment, but it was dismissed with little discussion, from what seemed to be an ideological standpoint. I think it would be tempting fate to have this event in the same place again next year.

Major props, though, to John, Tina, Holly, Will et al, without whom there would be very little here! More power to Somewhere_to, Citizens' Eye and (as I discovered today) Citizens' Ear. Yes indeed but that's still to come!

GROUPS TO SHOWCASE WORK AT CITY MARKET

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Groups to showcase work at city market

Wheelchair basketball players, sci-fi fans and charity workers will be among those taking over Leicester Market tomorrow.

Up to 100 charities, community groups, societies and clubs are set to showcase their work and activities at the second Our Leicester Day.

It is hoped the event, founded by businessman and charity worker Richard Brucciani, will be bigger and better than last year's debut event.

Mr Brucciani, chairman of hygiene products manufacturer Pal International, said: "We're all looking forward to the return of Our Leicester Day and, luckily, the weather should be a bit better for us this time around.

"There will be a range of activities happening, with all the different organisations showcasing what they've got to offer and, hopefully, it will be even better than last year.

"There will be a performance area this year where budding young pop stars, drama groups and street dancers will perform.

"The Leicester Cobras Wheelchair Basketball team are also going to make an appearance, which is very topical with the Paralympics taking place."

Having secured a £2,000 grant from the RSA charity to stage the event last year, Mr Brucciani has managed to persuade them to hand over £5,000 this time around.

Not all of the money will be spent tomorrow, though, as Mr Brucciani plans to use it for further events.

Rob Hunter, of Dads' United, a resource group for fathers, said: "It was a great day last year working alongside some good men and we all learnt a lot.

"We are aiming to raise the profile of our organisations and hopefully recruit some new members.

"After the terrible windy conditions that we experienced last year, it's nice to see that the weather forecast looks pretty good."

John Coster, managing editor of Citizen's Eye, a community news agency, and one of the event organisers, said: "We're in charge of the filming, photography and social networking and it will certainly be bigger and better than last year."

Other organisations taking part include Leicester Civic Society, Chill Enterprises, Leicester Charity Link and Starbase Leicester, a group for sci-fi and fantasy fans.

Our Leicester Day will take place from 11am to 3pm tomorrow.

For more information about the event, visit: www.leicesterday.org.uk

HISTORIC CITY SITES OPEN THEIR DOORS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Historic city sites open their doors

A house haunted by a mischievous 10-year-old, a hotel which took 200 years to open and the oldest brick building in the city are opening their doors free.

Between September 6 and 9, heritage sites across the city which are usually closed to the public or charge for admission will be open for all to see.

At De Montfort Hall on September 6 and 8, the public will have the chance to go backstage.

Leicester's oldest surviving brick building, Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel, in East Bond Street, was built over 300 years ago. It will open on September 8 and 9.

On September 7 and 9, members of the public might catch a glimpse of a Georgian child ghost supposedly haunting the medieval Wygston's House.

At the restored Georgian City Rooms hotel [photo above], visitors can see the ballroom decorated with classic paintings.

The grade I-listed building was built in 1792. It was intended to be Leicester's first hotel but lack of money meant it had to be sold before completion.

After various uses, it finally became a hotel in 2006, after being restored by Naresh and Sharon Parmar and their son Kiran.

Kiran, 26, said: "People who come here fall in love with the hotel and its great Georgian character.

"It's not as well-known as other heritage sites in Leicester but it is slowly becoming more popular as more people realise it's here."

Leicester Council of Faiths has organised a peace visit tour where people will have the chance to visit different religious buildings.

Ajay Aggarwal, co-ordinator of the council, said: "The open days will be a great way of bringing people from different backgrounds together.

"I had never been in a synagogue until this year and it was such a wonderful experience I think everyone should try visiting somewhere new."

For opening times, see: leicester.gov.uk/ heritageopendays

Leicester Council of Faiths would normally hold the Peace Visit tour on the Sunday of the Heritage Open Days weekend. This year that Sunday (9 September) would coincide with Our Leicester Day in Leicester Market. Last year, our scheduled Peace Visit clashed with Our Leicester Day. As we were committed to Our Leicester Day and didn't know how many people would be attending that event (including the kind of people that we'd normally draw on to support the Peace Visit) we cancelled our tour of some of the city's places of worship. This year, we're holding the Peace Visit on the Saturday, which avoids the clash and allows us to do both.

EVENT CELEBRATES THE BEST OF OUR CITY

This article (about Our Leicester Day) is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Event celebrates the best of our city 

People turned out to an event promoting local charities, community groups, societies and clubs yesterday. 

Up to 100 organisations showcased their work and activities during the inaugural Our Leicester Day, held at the city's market. 

Businessman and charity worker Richard Brucciani came up with idea after seeing a similar event while on holiday in France. 

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, who attended the event, said: "It's a wonderful opportunity for groups from all over the city to share their activities with the whole community. This is a great initiative." 

Dawn Morgan, 54, of Newfoundpool, Leicester, said: "I've just come into town with my daughter and grandchildren and happened across this. I never knew there were so many organisations doing so much good work in Leicester." 

Community worker Riaz Ravat said: "We see Our Leicester Day as a chance to promote the work we do and the opportunities for people to get involved. 

"But what is more significant is that we're showing how Christians and Muslims can work together on the 10th anniversary of 9/11." 

Mr Ravat arranged for leaders from the Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths to visit people and businesses following last month's violence in Leicester. He said: "We want to help restore the reputation of Leicester because the city has taken a few knocks recently." 

Our Leicester Day featured a diverse mix of groups, ranging from a sci-fi club and Viking enthusiasts to organisations helping people cope with cancer, HIV, sexual assault and domestic abuse. 

John Niblett, of the Rotary Club of Oadby Launde, said the group hoped to recruit more members by taking part in the event. He said: "It gives the organisations who carry out so much voluntary work in Leicester a chance to make the public aware and hopefully involve them in the work that they do."

OUR LEICESTER DAY 2011

At Leicester Market for Our Leicester Day. This is an opportunity for Voluntary and Community Sector organisations (and a few others) in the city (some from the county too) to present themselves to the general public, to the media - and to each other.

There are more than 110 organisations listed as taking part (described as "Promoters"), but it doesn't look to me as if all of them have turned up. The wind is probably a big factor in that. No one reckoned with the effects of the tail-end of Hurricane Katia. Some groups have had their display material virtually wrecked by the wind. There are leaflets flying everywhere, banners blown over and torn from their moorings and so much stuff being tossed backward and forward, it's a wonder no one is injured.

We share our space with Cooke e-learning Foundation and Menphys. Jim Matthews is helping run the Menphys stall. Jim worked as a reporter with the Leicester Mercury for 35 years. I introduce Gracie to Jim and ask her to tell him what she would like as a career. She makes a good impression on Jim, the outcome of which is that she gets a discount on a bunch of jigsaws (that's my girl!)

Today we're getting people to sign up to our forthcoming email newsletter, that we intend to launch during Community Media Week at the beginning of November.

Our Chair, Councillor Manjula Sood, and I get to speak for a few minutes live on BBC Radio Leicester about the Council of Faiths participation in today's event. I think I respond quite well to being asked live on air if I am Welsh.

A variety of media outlets covered the event, including Citizens' Eye Community News Agency and Pukaar News.

There's going to be a follow-up meeting for debriefing purposes at Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre, Thursday 3 November, 1730. I think that there's been a mixed message about this event, because of the date on which it's been held. On the whole, it's not being taken on by the "Promoters" as being about the tenth anniversary of 9/11 but it's been too convenient and easy (for which, read "lazy") for the media to present it as being so, leading to some skewed perspectives about who is here and what the event is for. Certainly, when I got to speak on BBC Radio Leicester, I wanted to say something different. This is not an event about how Christians and Muslims can get along. I reckon that's a bit of a cheap shot, actually. I haven't seen anything on the promotional material for today's event that would warrant that sort of conclusion. A look at the list of Promoters shows that very few indeed have got anything to do with that angle - even the Council of Faiths itself is not about dialogue and relations between just those two sections of the community. Going on the informal chatter to which I've been privy, the inaccurate emphasis on the Christian-Muslim aspect hasn't gone down well in general and led to a number of people who would have benefited from attending (as visitors or as Promoters) staying away from what appeared, to them, to be an event overtly favouring particular groups who actually turned out to be in a tiny minority here today.

I think that today's event was a success, despite the effects of Hurricane Katia and the tenth anniversary of 9/11, which couldn't help but cast a shadow over anything and everything that goes on today. If Our Leicester Day is to be held again, then hopefully neither foul weather nor the hand of history will set the tone as they have today.

Thanks for helping out today to Ajay, Alastair, Clare, Grace, Harry, Manjula and Rosemarie.

In the photo above: Councillor Manjula Sood (Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) and Ajay Aggarwal (Leicester Council of Faiths Co-ordinator). Note how the the wind is playing havoc with our pop-up banner!

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT GROUP

Meeting with my Personnel Management Group this morning in the Welcome Centre. Leicester Council of Faiths has a lot on its plate just now - and mine is stacked especially high! We have a very focused couple of hours, concentrating on some of the activities, events and opportunities coming our way over the next few months, e.g.

• Our Leicester Day (Sun 11 Sep)
• Leicester University International Students Fair (Wed 28 Sep)
• De Montfort University Student Community Fair (Thu 29 Sep)
• Everybody’s Reading Week (Sat 1 – Sun 9 Oct)
• Leicester University Faiths Trail launch (Fri 7 Oct)
• Leicester Speaks: AKA Local Democracy Week (Wed 12 – Wed 19 Oct)
• International Hate Crime Day (Fri 28 Oct)
• Community Media Week (Wed 2 – Tue 8 Nov)
• National Inter Faith Week (Sat 20 – Sun 26 Nov)