Loughborough

News Report: Streets alive

28th May 2007

STREETS ALIVE

Today, Bank Holiday Monday, saw Loughborough Town Centre become a lot busier than usual for a Bank Holiday as the Streets Alive Festival was being held. The festival which is now in it’s tenth year was hosted in Market Street and Market Place. The Streets Alive spectacular was organised in partnership with Charnwood Arts and Charnwood Borough Council.

Loughborough’s Mayor, Joe Tormey, opened the proceedings at 12:30pm to a reasonable crowd gathered in front of the stage that had been erected in Market Place near the bus stops.  Although earlier it had looked as if the photographers and the officials might outnumber the crowd, however people slowly increased to form a not unrespectable gathering. No doubt the crowd were all hoping that the heavens wouldn’t open as they had earlier in the day. After the opening ceremony a performance of Chinese Lion Dancing was put on which was spectacular. A few Chinese students looked on with interest and seemed impressed with the display.

Meanwhile displays were put on in other areas in Market Street and Cattle Market and these carried on throughout the afternoon with new performers arriving.

Various street performances put on fantastic displays, and performances that required a great deal of skill took on a new level with the pavements made damp and slippery by the rain. As used to be typical with British Bank Holiday weekends, the weather made an effort to ensure that there wasn’t too great a time between showers. Juggling or balancing at the top of free standing ladders, riding unicycles, or diving through hoops which had sharp knives on them is probably something you wouldn’t want to do in the rain. However that didn’t seem to put off ‘De Ramos Acrobats’ from throwing themselves around, however wearing not much than a thin layer of lycra can’t have been too warming. Lying on beds of nails whilst someone stands on your chest was probably less risky for the Acrobats. The weather regrettably undoubtedly put off some people and it was apparent that there were quite a few empty stalls where the stall holders had thought otherwise given the forecast. Unfortunately the people who put the stalls starting at 6 in the morning could have saved themselves some work!

Ceroc, who made an appearance at the Picnic in the Park the previous week, gave a demonstration of dance both on the main stage and also at the Town Hall. They will be starting lessons at the Town Hall weekly from this Thursday.

Events such as the Streets Alive Spectacular and the Picnic in the Park provide a great deal of enjoyment for those that turned up and really shouldn’t be missed. They also show that the Town has something to offer and Charnwood Arts play an important part in this. Cllr Shepherd said before the event: “It’s great to see the partnership between the Borough Council and Charnwood Arts going from strength to strength.”

As a final thought is it something typically British queuing for an ice cream with your umbrella up?  Let’s hope next year the weather improves and the Streets Alive Spectacular is bigger and better than ever!!

 

A selection of pictures of the Street Alive event can be viewed free on our Streets Alive Photograph Album

News report by T. Robson

---

Latest Loughborough News:

---

Add to bookmarks: Google   Facebook   del.icio.us  digg.com   yahoo

All original material on this page unless specified by another URL is the property of inLoughborough ©2007 and may not be reproduced without permission. inLoughborough is not responsible for the content of any external links. inLoughborough is a trading name of Mariners Quay Consultants Ltd a company registered in England and Wales No. 05737948

Back to Loughborough News home page