Old Town Festival

The sun shone on one of the hottest weekends of the year at the Old Town Festival. On Saturday 27th June the  Family Party on the Lawn took place. This year Commonweal were quite heavily involved and provided a performing arts marquee to enable dancers and singers from across the borough to participate and showcase their talents.

This was project managed by the school’s community arts development officer, Josie Williams. “Commonweal School are committed to extending performing arts into the community. This is the first year we have been this involved and have embraced the community cohesion aspects to make June 27th a celebration of Swindon's cultural diversity. I was invited to join the committee, so I have been at the coal face from the begining."

"We have funded the Commonweal Performing Arts Stage where musicians and dance groups from across Swindon have been given the opportunity to showcase their talents.

The following were represented:

Bollywood Dreamers
Theresa School of Dance
Empire Theatre
Tanwood School of Performing Arts
Stagecoach
Even Swindon After School Club
Commonweal Performing Arts
Romanska School of World Dance
K School of Music
Lawn Primary School
Warneford Heroes - Cheerleaders
The Friday Night Project
Even Swindon Primary School

"I Would just like to say thank you for Saturday as the kids really enjoyed performing. Thought the day went really well. Many Thanks," Teresa School of Dance.

" Thanks for a great day! The kids had an excellent time and I'll be keen to get my year 6's involved next year!" Louise Dunn – Even Swindon Primary.

"We had a fantastic time it was so much fun and such a great experience for all the troups I worked with. If you do it again next year or if you need any dancers for anything in the future ,The Friday Night Project crew are always up for a performance. The card was really nice thank you," Clare Jones. Click here to see the video.

The Commonweal Rock Marquee was also a great success with bands from school and the community entertaining the crowds. Josie also coordinated music in Holy Rood church where Swindon Young Musicians, Swindon Gospel Singers and Commonweal string quartet entertained.

Stagecoach, who use Commonweal School for their performing arts classes on a  Saturday, provided a fine select of Street Theatre. The students were very excited as this was the first time they had taken part in that type of theatre.

Emma Jackson, our Extended Schools coordinator for the Commonweal feeder schools, coordinated a huge Bee parade to highlight the desperate problems that bees are going through with colony collapse disorder. This involved 60 people from our feeder schools and the community ranging from 2 year olds to 70 year olds and even a dog!

The workshops were delivered by Commonweal's artist in residence Tracey Baker-Stewart via a series of workshops. Claudia Stroud, salsa dance teacher, taught the participants the steps. The group came second place out of 28! Wiltshire beekeepers were also on hand to educate people on the diverse potential of keeping bees.

On Sunday 28th at The Town Gardens Commonweal hosted the  band stand where Swindon Big Band, Commonweal’s partners are playing along with the award winning  Brunel Brass entertained.

Josie also organised the very first Art on the Fence project where artists were able to exhibit, sell and create art. This gave Swindon artists a chance to network, raise their profile and indeed the profile of the town. The amount of talent in Swindon is just oozing out of the floorboards!

"I would like to say a big thank you to all
students, parents and teachers who gave up their time to make this wonderful event happen. Without their support it would not have happened," Josie added.