The Carnival took place on Saturday 7th September, from 12 - 5 pm at High Hazels Park. Despite the bad weather we still had a reasonably good
turnout of around 2,500 throughout the day, from people of all ethnicities and
cultures.
The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress opened the event with children
from the local school holding flags representing different countries of the
world alongside local councillors. There was an information marquee with local
organisations including Pedal Power, Darnall Wellbeing, the Darnall Allotments,
Sheffield Humanist Society, East End Quality of Life, One Darnall and Galeed
House. They all gave information around health and well-being, training and
employment opportunities, environmental and youth activities. South Yorkshire
Fire and Rescue Service also brought along a fire engine and were on hand
to answer questions and give advice on fire safety.
There was entertainment
for children from rides to arts and crafts, face painting, bouncy castle/slide
and circus skills’ workshops. There was a variety of different foods and
performers on stage including Bollywood dancers, African drumming, Rap, Romanian
dancers and Bhangra music. There was also solo music which was provided by
Young Music, a Sheffield based social enterprise with the aim of helping start-up
musicians to pursue a career in music. There were various food stalls including
Caribbean and Asian cuisine, cakes and buns and milkshakes. There were also 40 stallholders in all,
including local people raising money for charities and selling clothing,
scarves, sweets and snacks, henna, jewelry, handbags and accessories.
The event was very well publicised in the Darnall Herald which
went out to every household in Darnall (7500). We also gave a copy to every
child in two of our local schools. On the day our compère made regular announcements thanking our sponsors and the event was publicised in The Star
newspaper and on local radio. There was also a banner on the stage with logos
from all the funders.
If you'd like to help us make the 2015 carnival even better, please contact Nazia on 0114 249 0099 or email nazia @ darnall.org.uk.
