Bradley Stoke Town Council Community Festival 2024 Review

The Community Festival is a well-established annual event popular with the local residents and community. Whilst the main event day for the festival was Saturday 8th June 2024, there were a range of activities taking place throughout the town across the weekend.

Saturday 8th June 2024 – Main Festival day at the Jubilee Centre.

The main festival day was a combination of music, dance, community stalls, food and drink, rides, displays and demonstrations, youth football festival and a street art project.

The day started off rather overcast, but by the afternoon, the sky cleared, and the sun came out. Unfortunately, due to the early morning adverse weather conditions, we were advised that the planned balloon launch (which was going to involve approximately 10-12 hot air balloons) had to be called off, but we are hoping to arrange a balloon fly-out from the Jubilee Centre site later in the year, so keep an eye out for more information on this.

The Town Council Mayor, Councillor Natalie Field welcomed everyone and officially opened the Festival

The music was provided by an eclectic mix of local bands and singers; Doc Rock, Beacon Rise, Elevation, Outatime, Kaiju Blue and Dreamscape. Unfortunately as the singers who were booked for the first slot were unable to attend at the last minute, Doc Rock stepped into the breach and performed two sets.

Local dance groups performing in between the bands were: Baby Ballet, Street Envy, 5678 Dance, Danceworks, Street Cred and South Gloucestershire Chinese Association.

See more photos from the Community Festival here...

Bradley Stoke Town Council's Youth Work team once again provided the very popular combination of free 'have a go' graffiti workshops (with professional artists) and a large portable skatepark half-pipe; provided by King Ramps. There were regular pro rider demos interspersed with 'have a go' sessions and music and a display of Town Council Youth Work project information. As always, the supervised graffiti workshops proved very popular with many families queueing for the opportunity to spray paint their names on a take-home graffiti board. Those involved in this were provided with all-encompassing PPE to protect themselves and their clothes.

The Town Council provided a large Climbing Wall operated by qualified staff with volunteer support from the local 1st Bradley Stoke Scout Group which encouraged children to climb the wall in full safety harnessing and ropes as well as offering the opportunity for locals to find out about the world of scouting. The scout group also offered the safe opportunity to have a go at axe and tomahawk throwing.

The Community Zone where there were 3 large inflatable rides which were free-to-use for local residents and children. Parents had the opportunity to donate to the Bradley Stoke Mayor's chosen charities when using the Community Zone rides, but there was no obligation to do so.

Spread across the Jubilee Centre site were large number of community group stalls, local companies and food stalls alongside sideshows and a range of fun rides for the children include the giant slides, bouncy castles and the ever-popular, children's Go-Karts.

Bradley Stoke Youth Football Club event

On the top football pitch at the Jubilee Centre, Bradley Stoke Youth Football Club ran their youth football festival involving many young people across a range of ages. All children participating received medals, certificates and goody bags. In total, 150 children took part in the football festival. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor presented the medals to all the participants and trophies to the different age groups.

See more photos from the Football Festival here...

Sunday 9th June 2024 - Jubilee Centre and Bradley Stoke Skatepark

The Jubilee Centre hosted the 10K Run and the Brightwell Colour Run with the skatepark hosting a number of events and activities.

10K Run

The ever-popular Sole Sisters 10K run started and finished at the Jubilee Centre. Infrastructure for the run was provided by the Town Council (toilets and fencing). Approximately 570 competitors had signed up for the run and enjoyed ideal conditions with a very quick time of just under 33 minutes being achieved by the winner.

See more photos from the Sole Sisters 10K run here...

Skatepark Event

Once again, this year, Bradley Stoke Town Council's Youth Workers and local young people hosted their popular package of Skatepark and Art activities. A mix of skate park skills and creative arts ran alongside the annual Festival Skatepark competition. The competition was interspersed with rider demonstrations and 'have-a-go' opportunities, with the support of Kings Ramps, along with music and an MC.

The Art activities gave young people the opportunity to participate in workshops run by Olas Arts and those attending produced their own piece of artwork to take home. The artist has worked with the Town Council in the past, running popular workshops and, this year, once again used old vinyl records as a canvas for street art style creativity.

Young people's involvement in planning and organising the festival is supported by Bradley Stoke Town Council's youth workers. If you are a young person living in the Bradley Stoke area and aged 11 to 19 who would like to find out about our other youth work sessions and projects, or would like to get involved as a young person or volunteer, come along for a chat or contact the youth development & participation worker on 07900 253826 or email Graham Baker

Instagram: @bradleystokeskatepark

Facebook: @bradleystokeskatepark

See more photos from the Skatepark Competition here...

Brightwell Centre Colour Run

Returning again for 2024 at the Jubilee Centre was the popular Brightwell Centre Colour Run. This once again proved to be a colourful and fun event with competitors and paint throwers alike ending the event covered in paint.

See more photos from the Brightwell Centre Colour Run here...