A brand new monthly drop in service is being launched on Saturday 27th March by the volunteer organisers of the annual Stamford Riverside Festival. The sessions are being provided with support from Lincolnshire County Council under their ‘This is Art’ branding. The launch marks the start of a new partnership between the Riverside Festival and Stamford Library, which will see them working together on a number of initiatives over the coming months.
The new Riverside Festival Drop-in Sessions will take place in the Community Corner at Stamford Library, High Street, Stamford, on the last Saturday of each month. Members of the festival team will be available to talk to the public between 10.00am and 12 noon.
Festival organiser Barbara Sandbach said “The aim of these drop-in sessions is to help improve our accessibility to the public and in particular to local residents. Thousands of people attend the festival each year and many would like to know more about how we are organised and how they can get involved and support us; because the festival is organised entirely by a small team of volunteers we don’t have an office to work from so people can find it difficult to contact us and find out more about the event. We hope these drop-ins will help by providing an informal chance for people to talk to us face to face.”
Information will be available at the sessions about the wide range of volunteering opportunities to help the festival year round and at the event. Last year around 100 volunteers gave more than 5,000 hours of their time to help make the festival a success, and with plans to expand this year even more help is needed. Volunteering with the festival is a great way to meet people, learn new skills, and help the community, while having fun. Volunteering with the festival is open to everyone and the current age range of our volunteers is from 15 - 75+.
The festival team will also be able to outline their plans and arrangements for this year’s event which will mark the 10th Anniversary under it’s Riverside name, although the history of the festival can be traced back much further under its previous names of Music/Rock on the Meadows. Last year Riverside attracted its largest audience to date with up to 17,500 people on site at any one time, and footfall across the day of 46,000 people. To help accommodate the extra visitors and provide even more entertainment for the growing audience, organisers are planning* to extend the festival over two days Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th July. * subject to securing the necessary premises licence and funding
The Riverside team will also be on hand to explain more about the entertainment that is being planned, most of the Riverside favourites will be back again, but with many new elements being introduced on both days. Saturday will have a similar look and feel to previous Riverside Festivals while Sunday will have a firm emphasis on family audiences with the whole day having a much more relaxed, laid back and chilled out feeling. The musical programming across the two days will feature very different genres of music many new to Riverside including jazz and classical performances, and organisers are also planning to expand the range of other performance and non performance arts showcased at the event, with even more activities aimed at children.
Riverside are also working in partnership with a much wider range of local organisations this year and are still keen to hear from and work with even more. Barbara said “We want Riverside to involve as many local people as possible many more voluntary & community groups, schools and colleges, are getting involved which is fantastic”. Riverside are also expanding their partnerships with statutory and emergency services and this together with support from local businesses, and local newspapers, magazines and radio stations means Riverside is now one of the largest community events in the region.
Tony Rawlinson Riverside’s Event Manager said “We have listened very carefully to all the feedback we have received from the public and other agencies, about past events and what they would like to see in future. Taking account of this feedback we believe our plans are both ambitious and realistic.”
Tony went on to say “We have put in lots of new safety and security measures to address the concerns we have received; while at the same time developing plans for expanding the entertainment we offer to meet the needs of our growing audience. Riverside is already a very popular event in the Towns calendar and we believe our proposals for this year will help make it even better in the future.
These monthly Riverside Drop-in sessions will provide local people with a chance to come and find out more about the festival and our plans and provide us with an opportunity to address any remaining concerns.”
The Riverside Team are looking forward to meeting lots of new people at the Drop In Sessions which are scheduled to take place as follows :
Dates : Saturdays: 27th March, 24th April, 29th May, 27th June, & 31st July
Time : 10am - 12 noon
Venue : Community Corner, Stamford Library, High Street, Stamford
Art and Soul
