Schoolchildren prepare for Aylesbury’s Roald Dahl Festival
Archived press release
Date Published: 13/06/12
Roald Dahl workshop
Aylesbury Vale schoolchildren have been getting into a carnival mood during preparations for this year’s Roald Dahl Festival.
Children and young people from local secondary schools, primary schools and the Jonathan Page Playcentre have been creating puppets of all shapes and sizes and colourful artwork based on the world-renowned author’s classic stories.
On Saturday 7 July at 11am, the festival will open with a spectacular parade through Aylesbury town centre featuring around 500 local schoolchildren and the fabulous puppets and artwork they have helped to create.
Artists Gemma Holland and Holly Burrows have been working with students from Aylesbury Vale Academy, The Grange School and Mandeville School to make giant puppets of popular characters and creatures from the Roald Dahl books. The students have been involved all the way through the process.
Workshops led by artists Stuart McLellan and Pippa North have also been held at primary schools across the district to help children create colourful hand puppets, signs and other artwork themed on the wonderful characters created by Dahl.
Organised by Aylesbury Vale District Council, the Roald Dahl Festival is a special day of fantastic family activities and entertainment. This year the festival celebrates its tenth anniversary by exploring the characters and themes from past events.
After the festival parade there will be plenty to do in Aylesbury town centre and for this year only, the Roald Dahl Games are taking place in Vale Park as part of the district’s celebrations for the London 2012 Games.
Councillor David Thompson, Cabinet Member for Leisure, said: “We want as many children and young people as possible to get involved in this year’s festival parade, and one of the best ways of doing this is helping them to create artwork they can be proud of. The workshops, led by professional artists, provide an ideal way for young people to get together to learn new skills in an informal, fun and interactive way. There’s an incredible amount of work going into this year’s parade, and I think everyone will be delighted with the results.”
To find out more about this year’s festival, please visit www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/dahl or call 01296 585301.