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Family fun in the Park – Village Green 2019

24th June 2019
Posted by Johnny Jenkins

Click here to enter our Village Green competition!

From toddlers to teenagers to third agers, there’s a stage, a space and a tent for everyone  to enjoy at Metal Culture’s Village Green in Chalkwell Park on Saturday 13 July.

Bringing together a fantastic array of family friendly performers and activities, Village Green offers a great day out for families with children of all ages.  Tickets for children under 10 years of age are free, and holders of Southend on Sea Council’s Advantage Card C can also receive free tikcets. These can be picked up from the Southend Borough Council reception on production of an Advantage Card C.

With colour, costumes and all kinds of sights and sounds around, Leigh’s new creative studio Create98 will be helping everyone, young or older, get into the festival spirit by making a festival headdress to wear proudly all day. A great way to begin the day at Village Green.

Mini Green is the dedicated area for babies and toddlers. Award winning Baby Sensory, offering a world of exciting sensory activities to help with babies’ development will be found here, with singing, dancing, light shows and puppets. 

Young festival goers can meet The Lost Leigh Goose on a magical storytelling adventure from Siberia to Southend with the colourful and imaginative Wild Story Theatre. Another musical adventure awaits too with Mrs H and the Sing-along Band and their unique and infectious blend of family music, with a sprinkling of mischief and lots of fun.

There might be dinosaurs to discover in the swamp or trucks to drive through the snow with Buttercup Club: fun sensory and tactile messy play to excite and provoke imagination in little ones! Book lovers can find new stories to hear from Usborne Books or be entertained by Half a String Theatre Company. Half a String entertain all generations with intricate and memorable puppetry andoriginal storiestold through physical objects, original songs and live music.

For budding musicians, The Rig offers the chance to try out percussion instruments. This musical playground is an installation of curiosities for the whole family, created from upcycled objects which have been turned into instruments and sound experiments. Be amazed at what can be recycled and made to make music.

To reveal the amazing world around us, Mini Professors teach science in an understandable, interactive and fun way. What experiments might be run at Village Green?

The youngest festival goers also have a free opportunity to gain their very first Arts Award with Discover in a Day, led by artist Claire Harrup. Run as drop in sessions, youngsters can explore the arts and discover new interests and skills.

Roving around the park during Village Green will be Oscar the Fox. Oscar is a perambulating, pedal powered, larger than life fox created by Festive Road Outdoor Arts. At 8 metres long, he’ll be hard to miss.

The vintage Blackwater Free Fair is a vintage fair harking back to the days of traditional showmanship with original content. It blurs the lines between a classic funfair and a performance: enjoy the Moby Dick Hi Striker, the 30ft cork shooter and traditional children’s swing boats as you’ve never seen them.

The N-Act Theatre Stage is new to Village Green this July. The Theatre Tent will host some fantastic performances for children and young people to share the joy of live theatre. Local schools and performing arts schools together with theatre companies and poets show just how many talented performers can be found in and around Southend.

Alex Scheffler’s stories of best friends Pip and Posy will be well known to the youngest festival goers. Pip and Posywill be appearing on the Jacqson Diego stage alongside award-winning authors and poets. For older children, the Wimpy Kid Showbrings to life Jeff Kinney’s mis-adventures of Greg Heffley which have been successfully translated to film and are now a live show. Over in the ForwardMotion Village, there’ll be thrills and spills with team extreme on their huge skate ramp plus professional skateboarders and BMXers, static bike racing, balance bikes and a pop-up cycling track.

Teens should head to the Oak Stage to see a variety of young up and coming Southend musical talent courtesy of Soslam Music Collective, and the Global Village stage will ring to the sound of music from around the world and always gets festival goers on their feet to dance.

The whole Village Green programme can be found at www.villagereen.com. Village Green 2019, the tenth festival and the best yet.

Click here to enter our Village Green competition!

Image: Metal