Press release
Heart of Wembley Festival
On Saturday, 16 July 2016 Wembley Futures will be hosting the first Heart of Wembley Festival. This exciting community event will take place from 1pm-6pm on Wembley High Road from Park Lane towards the Triangle.
The Festival is the first activity by Wembley Futures, one of 150 recipient groups across the UK to be awarded funding by The Big Local. A long-term innovative programme that aims to achieve lasting change, The Big Local provides a mixture of funding, finance and support. The Big Local is an opportunity for residents in Wembley Central to make a massive and lasting positive difference to their area.
The Heart of Wembley Festival aims to celebrate the communities in Wembley Central through music, dance and food. Among the musicians playing onstage will be Dhol2Dhol, outstanding performers and instructors of the vibrant Dhol drum, who have played at the closing of the 2012 Paralympic Games, Sports Relief 2016, and the London Marathon 2016. Other performers include the renowned band Zong Zing All Stars, playing uplifting soukous fusion music from Central Africa; the melodic singer-songwriter duo Sumner Anderson; and the eclectic award-winning soca musician Triniboi Joocie whose calypso sound blends with soul, funk and and cadence for an irresistible experience. The Festival is also pleased to feature the talented KSPARK Bollywood dancers and the award-winning comedian and magician Christian Lee, who recently reached the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent.
The Heart of Wembley Festival will be a family-friendly environment, with children’s rides from Irvin Leisure, arts and crafts workshops, and fascinating street theatre, as well as cycling and active lifestyle programmes, community and information stalls, and stalls offering fashion and homewares, health products, and tantalising world food.
In addition to celebrating the Big Local success, the Festival will unveil future plans for Wembley Central for 2016-2017 with the aim of enthusing residents, businesses and partner organisations about the possibilities that Wembley Futures presents.
Anton Phillips, Chair of Wembley Futures, said: “The Heart of Wembley Festival is a fantastic opportunity to come together and enjoy ourselves as a community, and to show that with the Big Local we can use local talent, resources and skills to make Wembley an even better place to live. I hope to see both new and familiar faces at the Festival in July.”
For more information please contact Osita Udenson on 07875 588 107 or udenson@btinternet.com.
Note to Editors:
Big Local Wembley Central (BLWC) is the Big Local Area for Wembley Central, London Borough of Brent. This area was selected in December 2012 as part of the final 50 Big Local Areas in Wave Three of the overall Big Local Programme. The Local Trust’s mission is to “to enable residents to make their communities and their areas even better places in which to live.”
The overall national Programme is a £200m investment launched by the Big Lottery Fund in July 2010 to support 150 small urban and rural communities to come together to improve their area.
Each Big Local area is receiving at least £1m Lottery funding over the next 10 years, which residents themselves will be in charge of spending on ways to improve their community from training and employment schemes to tackling anti-social behaviour, creating new community facilities or providing more activities for young people.
Each area will also be given support, training, and networking opportunities to help them develop their plans and empower them to find solutions that work for their communities.
Managed by Local Trust, an independent organisation, and supported by a range of partner organisations, Big Local is targeting pockets of the country that have been overlooked for funding and resources in the past and may face issues including the decline of local industry, high levels of unemployment, or a pressing need for new support services or activities.
The Heart of Wembley Festival is being curated by Udenson Caldbeck Associates, an urban regeneration, economic development and events consultancy based in northwest London.