Family arts duo aim to bring a little magic to Lost Carnival show
A FAMILY arts event group from Macclesfield is set to launch an action-packed year with a major festival show.
Wild Rumpus, based at Rode Hall, will appear at The Lost Carnival later this month and aim to give families and children a ‘magical and enchanting’ experience.
The social enterprise was set up in 2009 by directors Sarah Bird and Rowan Hoban after meeting at a Macclesfield book club, where they discovered a shared passion for family arts events in wild, natural landscapes.
The group will now take part in The Lost Festival, a theatre, circus and music show in Bury which is excepted to attract 10,000 people.
During 2015, Wild Rumpus hope to employ more than 200 staff, freelancers and volunteers to cover a series of events including the Dig the City Festival and Northern Festivals Network.
They have previously produced the awardwinning Just So Festival, now in its sixth year, and contributed to the family programme at the Barnaby Festival each year.
Former Macclesfield Waterstones manager Sarah, of Jordangate, said the aim of Wild Rumpus is to ‘take families out of their everyday life’ and ask them to ‘suspend their disbelief’.
She said: “We both discussed how festivals that already existed, if they had a family element at all, it was just a bit of sticking and gluing in the corner and all the money was spent on headline acts.
“We has this idea that we could have a festival where all the money was spent on families instead.
“The terrifying thing for parents at festivals is losing their kids in a crowd so we wanted to create a place where families could relax and enjoy themselves.
“There is an exciting culmination at the end of the evening too which I can’t reveal yet.”
The Lost Carnival will be the first ever large scale event to be held at Burrs Country Park in Bury.
Rowan, who lives on Catherine Street and used to run Button & Skein wool shop on Church Street, said: “We’ve heard whispers for many years of a Lost Carnival, and have often hoped that it might reappear in our lifetime.”
The carnival will run from May 22 to May 25 from 4pm - 9.30pm. Tickets are £10 and free for under 3s. To book visit thelostcarnival.org.uk.