Festival Oldham is back!

Oldham Council and its partners Spareparts have announced that Festival Oldham is back!

The borough’s free celebration of art and entertainment takes place on Saturday, July 24 in Parliament Square in Oldham town centre and Gallery Oldham gardens.

Over the last 16 months lots of people have gone above and beyond to help others, so to recognise those efforts the council has chosen a ‘Heroes’ theme for this year’s event.

Go and join in from noon until 4pm and celebrate the start of summer 2021 with more than 100 local and national performers.

On the day you can expect Street Theatre, Circus, Street Art, Dance, Puppetry, Live music, Street games and much more.

Among the performances on the day you might want to look out for: ‘Planet B’ by Oldham Theatre Workshop; space hero the Urban Astronaut by Highly Sprung Theatre, Oldham based Brazilian percussion group Jubancana and CavemanM8, featuring some of Manchester’s finest MCs.

Come and meet Mr Tickle and Little Miss Sunshine in Parliament Square as they help them celebrate 50 years of the iconic children's book series.

Plus don’t miss all the exciting shows in the Gallery Oldham gardens, including My House a circus theatre show especially for little people and Mama G storytime plus lots more.

While you are there why not visit the exciting summer exhibitions at Gallery Oldham including the Brick by Brick exhibition where all the artworks are made entirely from LEGO®.

To find out more about the performers, what’s going on and more information, visit: www.oldham.gov.uk/festivaloldham

Councillor Shaid Mushtaq, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, said: “It’s great to have Festival Oldham back. Families can visit the town centre to watch and take part in high-quality cultural experiences in a fun and safe environment – and as usual it’s all free.

“We’ve managed to pull together a great line up of performances that has something for everyone.

“It’s looking more than likely most Covid restrictions will have been lifted by the time of the event, but we’ll still have safety measures in place to reassure you.”

Festival Oldham also links with the Summer Reading Challenge, which this year has a similar theme, Wild World Heroes.

Sign-up Saturday is on the same day so while you’re in the town centre why not pop over to Oldham Library and get your young ones signed up for their fun and enjoyable summer reading journey?

Cllr Mushtaq added: “The Summer Reading Challenge is a great way to get our children enthused about reading.

“With a host of fun activities and a great selection of books on offer, children and families can discover and share their love of reading.”

Find out more about the Summer Reading Challenge at: www.oldham.gov.uk/summerreadingchallenge

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