Leicester’s Spark Festival for Children is back to celebrate Joy, Freedom, and Choice from the 18th to 25th May 2024…
The event will host 34 performances and 15 chances for children to ‘Give it a Go’ at activity-based workshops. The Spark Festival 2024 is packed with events, activities, live music, dance and theatre for families, and much of it is free to enjoy.
Celebrating its 21st year of putting children at the forefront of theatre and arts, this year’s big birthday festival has been created with the help of the self-named ‘Mega Bosses’, a dynamic group of 8 to 13-year-olds from all over Leicester/shire, guided by artist Pasha Kincaid, who told Spark that ‘they didn’t just want to watch great theatre and art, they wanted to participate in it too!’
When they heard this, Principal Festival Partner, De Montfort University, were only too happy to get involved and, as a result, this year’s The Spark Festival will see Leicester transformed into the biggest city-wide, children’s playground as local children are invited to ‘Give it a Go’ with free creative workshops, roleplay sessions, music making and print workshops over the seven days.
Kicking off this year’s festival will be a takeover of two of Leicester’s biggest cultural venues, which will see De Montfort University and Leicester Museum and Art Gallery transformed into hubs of creativity, joy, and excitement with lots of free activities for all the family. Key to this year’s festival is the inclusion of live music, dance and theatre productions that engage young audiences with the performing arts and focus on expression, empowerment and diversity.
In a year where budget cuts and the cost-of-living crisis continues to restrict children’s access to theatre and live music, the Spark Festival will ensure that thousands of schoolchildren across Leicester/shire get to experience world-class music, dance, and theatre in their school halls as well as in the city’s theatres. This year, the ‘At Your School’ programme will bring theatre and dance directly to children at their school with Belongings, Birdie, and The Sticky Dance, as well as music with Indo-Jazz. All are specially curated for schoolchildren to bring some Spark-y magic and joy into their schools.
Christopher Gorry, Artistic Director at Spark Arts:
‘It seems right that in The Spark Festival’s 21st year that we place children at the heart of the decision making. The Mega Bosses of Spark have really clear ideas about how they want the festival to serve the children of Leicester now and into the future -this festival marks the beginning of that journey. We’re thrilled to be able to bring so many free to attend workshops and events to this year’s festival, whilst still providing local audiences, in theatre and in schools, access to some truly amazing productions and experiences from world class artists. We can’t wait for you to come down and Give it a Go’!
See the next page for event highlights…
