The Canvas of Billingham Festival
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL HAS 10,000 REASONS TO BE GRATEFUL
This week, the North East joined the rest of the nation in marking the one-year anniversary of the first lockdown in response to the coronavirus. The pandemic has devasted people’s lives, dreams and professions…and one of the sectors to be decimated has been The Arts.
Concert halls, venues and stages have been numbly silenced with audiences being told to stay away, and resorting to a whole new world of watching their favourite performers online.
This concept has been perfectly embraced by one of the region’s longest running cultural celebrations. The Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance has been awarded a grant totalling £10,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund to bring to life a project entitled “The Canvas of Billingham Town”.
The National Lottery uses the money raised by National Lottery players to help support people and communities to thrive.
The project will celebrate cultural traditions from a variety of different counties, whose dancers would usually be exponents of energetic dance techniques to be seen and heard on local stages in Billingham Town Centre and surrounding locations.
Olga Maloney, Artistic Director of the Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance, said:
“The people of Billingham have come to love, respect and value the visiting cultural ambassadors who have graced our Festival for well over five decades. These same people have seen this firm family favourite being snatched away from them by the pandemic, as international travel restrictions and performance constraints have meant community festival events have been forced to cancel.”
Olga continues: “This red tape hasn’t stopped us from delivering our annual serving of global culture to the people of Tees Valley, as The Canvas of Billingham Town will be a beautiful virtual celebration that will bring a big smile back to the face of the region. We have entertainment, education and a universal helping of art, dance and worldwide customs that will be embraced by community participation.
“This project will help to stimulate people’s minds at a time when the pandemic has greatly affected their wellbeing and mental health, and will be a welcome main course to appease their cultural appetite.”
Over the next 6-months The Canvas of Billingham Town will bring to our virtual shores:
- Professional multi-cultural crafts workshops featuring traditional crafts from all over the world.
- Bringing to life the history of famous dance styles including Flamenco, Kathak and Maori. By showcasing traditional dance costumes and musical instrument presentations for children and adult audiences.
- Folk Tales from around the world delivered for our young festival goers.
- Engaging the online audience by getting them to create their own interpretations of world arts and crafts through sending photographs and videos of their creations. BIFF will then display the artworks in shop windows around Billingham Town Centre Shop for the community to celebrate and admire.
- All of the community artworks will be posted online as part of a specially commissioned film that will be premiered at the end of the project.
Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North and a former Festival Committee member said: “Whilst Billingham may have been in the country’s spotlight as a manufacturing site for Coronavirus vaccine, it has always been a world focus for our amazing International Folklore Festival playing host to dancers from every continent on earth showcasing the best.
“It is fantastic news that the Festival has been awarded this grant from the National Lottery Community Fund to share what it has excelled at for more than 50 years. I am sure the Canvas of Billingham Town will be one of the most colourful possible and I am sure people across the country and the world will enjoy it very much.”