Pendle Festival of Culture & Peace Walks

A family fun day bringing Pendle’s diverse communities together is taking place on Saturday 28th June in Nelson, Lancashire.

The Pendle Festival of Culture is part of This is Nelson, which is the arts and culture strand of the Nelson Town Deal. The Festival is taking place along Market Street and Scotland Road in Nelson town centre from 12noon to 6pm.

The festival will feature a spectacular line-up of local and international musicians and performers, including Fat Cat Brass, The Nasheed Choir, Stone the Crows, RiRi’s Bollywood Dancers, and Gnawa MCR. There will also be over 20 interactive art workshops, exhibitions and installations. Audiences can also enjoy a Young Makers Market, face painting, street food, storytelling and funfair rides.

Kicking off the day will be the arrival of the Peace Walks. Walk leaders will guide people along the routes starting from Brierfield, Colne & Barrowford crossing through scenic countryside before joining together along the canal and making their way into the centre of town.

To join the Brierfield to Nelson walk, meet at 10.30am at the main entrance of Pendleside Hospice on Colne Road, BB10 2LW. To join the Colne to Nelson walk, meet at 10.30am at St Bartholomew’s Church, 28 Ivegate, Church Street, Colne, BB8 0LQ. And to join the new route Barrowford to Nelson, meet at 10.30am at Barrowford Primary School, Rushton Street, Barrowford, BB9 6EA. All groups, families, organisations and individuals are invited to decorate a flag that they can carry with them on the day. The flag is an expression and celebration of how people connect to the chosen theme through words, images and colour.

Mashuq Hussain OBE of Marsden Heights Community College, said: “These walks will be a fantastic opportunity to get together with friends and family, as well as meet new friends whilst taking in Pendle’s beautiful countryside. The banners and flags are an integral part of the festival, representing the ambitions and hopes of the many different community groups in Pendle. The coming together of all these groups is representative of community cohesion and co-creation and the culmination of the walk at the beginning of the festival is symbolic of the unity of these disperse groups in one place.”

Holly Noonan of Building Bridges Pendle, said: “Please come along and join us at this fantastic event, especially if you’ve never been before.  We have a wonderful opportunity to come together to celebrate our cultures, communities and each other.”

The public can enjoy the Orchestra of Objects, an interactive sound garden installation where people of all ages can invent and create their own musical instruments and then use them to create music together. Families can also enjoy mini golf in the Town Centre as well as trying out their skills on a climbing wall!

Hosted at the festival will be the artwork created as part of Are you Lost?. which welcomes residents into the heart of the Forest of Bowland to discover stories through sound, film and textile installations and will be open for the public to see for the first time. The work is the exciting new Lancaster Arts commission with artist, Rob St John alongside the Forest of Bowland National Landscape. Are You Lost? is part of the national programme called Nature Calling with executive producers Activate Performing Arts and the National Landscapes Association and is funded by Arts Council England and Defra. 

For more information about the Festival and to register for The Peace Walk and flag kit, email maj@buildingbridgespendle.org.uk.

Early thanks are given to our sponsors and supporters for this event, the Big Lottery Community Fund, This is Nelson, Nelson Town Council, Pendle Borough Council, St Bartholomew's Church, Pendleside Hospice, Barrowford Primary School, Building Bridges Pendle, Super Slow Way and Volunteer Police Cadets. Pendle Festival of Culture is part of This Is Nelson, supported by Arts Council England.