There’s so much going on over the summer
ONE of my favourite events of the year takes place this weekend – the Boo Puppet Festival.
The Horse and Bamboo Theatre is one of our area’s hidden gems and certainly deserves support this weekend.
You can find full details at: www. horseandbamboo.org/ puppet-festival.
Often, the only events held locally which seem to travel further afield are the gravy wrestling and black pudding throwing events – for obvious reasons, I suppose.
But there’s so much more going on here this summer.
The summer beach fair is returning to Rawtenstall later this month, and a food festival will take over Bank Street in Rawtenstall on July 30.
The 60s Festival returns in September, and then of course there is the Rushcart Festival in Whitworth in September too, along with the excellent Haslingden Street Fair.
All of these events involve a lot of hard work on the part of volunteers and supporters – and if you, like me, are one of those people who longs for there to be more to do around here, it’s so very important we get out and support these events.
To find out more about the annual puppetry festival at the Horse and Bamboo Theatre, turn to our Rossendale People page on page 27
THE Valley of Stone Greenway and the National Cycle Network Route 6 (NCNR 6) are part of a newly developed sustainable transport programme which runs through the Rossendale Valley, taking in majestic viaducts, dark tunnels, ancient mill ruins and shady wooded groves and linking up stretches of disused railway to create off-road greenways.
The Greenway Explorers group is part of Mid Pennine Arts (MPI), and has developed a programme ‘Scenic Route’, that introduces the new routes through workshops in schools, family activities, community festivals, artist commissions and more.
The Valley of Stone Greenway and NCNR 6 is part of the East Lancashire Strategic Cycleway network, made possible by government funding and led by their partners at Lancashire County Council (LCC).
Over the next few years, millions of pounds will be invested in joining up fragmented cycle routes based on old railway lines and building up a more joined up network.
LCC have invited Mid Pennine Arts to bring a creative dimension to the programme. The ‘Scenic Route’ concentrates on two key routes, The Valley of Stone Greenway, running from Rochdale through Rossendale to Rawtenstall, and the NCNR 6, which links Accrington to Ramsbottom through Rossendale via Haslingden and Helmshore. The Greenway Explorers are organising a programme of community activities in some of the neighbourhoods where work on the routes is taking place. They include Woodnook, Helmshore, Snig Hole, Stacksteads, Shawforth and Whitworth.
Workshops are being offered to local primary schools to look at ideas of destination, what makes a tourist spot, and some of the special places that the greenways link up, including some beautiful concepts for tourist destination posters from our young designers.
Activities for older participants in secondary schools are being customised to meet their needs.
For further information, please go to their website at www.midpenninearts.org.uk/projects/greenway-explorers