A musical extravaganza at Darnhill Festival

Photo: David Butterworth

The Darnhill Festival banner

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The Darnhill Festival held a successful fifth annual event this weekend.

The festival on Saturday (6 July) kicked off at St. Margaret’s C of E Primary School with a carnival procession, based on the festival’s theme ‘It’s a small world’ and led by the Manchester School of Samba.

The procession left the Argyle Parade, went through the Darnhill estate, and then back into the school grounds which hosted a range of entertainment, from bands of all genres and ages, to circus performers and ‘Have a go’ sessions.

Despite a variety of weather including rain, sun and wind, the festival proved to be a great success and Niki Duthie, Festival Co-ordinator from Cartwheel Arts, said: “It’s been a brilliant day, brilliant range of local talent, biggest crowd in the five years and the new venue has proved really successful and I’d like to thank all of the volunteers, artists and performers for making it such a great day.”

The showground was filled with people, despite the poor weather, to hear the Manchester School of Samba give a short performance, and then the compare, Justin Hamilton, the headmaster of St Margaret’s Primary School, and Councillor Keith Swift, Deputy Mayor of Rochdale, provided the welcoming speeches, and declared the festival open.

The first of the bands to perform were ‘The Sticks’, a local five piece who were former pupils of St. Margaret’s. They entertained the crowd with their range of rock music.

A second performance from the Manchester School of Samba included a lot of dancing before a the trio of musicians, suitably named ‘Flat Cap Three’, took to the stage to perform their own laid back variations of popular tunes.

A dramatic change to the atmosphere came when Tatara Taiko performed a half hour set of Japanese Drumming, which was followed by laid back music fusion from ‘Kokoriko’.

After the music performances there was dance showcase, featuring Rochdale dance schools The Academy and Spotlight Theatre, two young groups from St Margaret’s Primary School, and a young solo dance artist, Jade Kilduff.

Jade performed a dance medley from The Lion King, which proved to be a real crowd pleaser, and, following this, the crowd continued to grow.

Spotlight Theatre’s performance was followed by a young soloist break-dancer from the academy, and then Jade Kilduff took to the stage once more to perform her second solo, which started with her hiding in a box on stage.

To finish the dance showcase, the headlining act from St. Margaret’s Primary School took to the stage to perform a dance to ‘We’re All in This Together’ from the Disney film, High School Musical.

After the dance showcase a five piece acoustic rock band, The Moons took to the stage to perform a range of rock songs using a blend of acoustic and electric instruments.

The genre of music then took another change as rappers ‘Klimax’ and ‘Tight Konnexion’ took to the stage for a short set, and after this, the final band ‘One Winged Angel’, a classic rock band with a hint of metal influence, came onto stage to perform a range of cover music, which then led to a final thanks and farewell from Justin Hamilton.

The two stages that the bands were performing on were the ‘Main Stage’ and the ‘Solar Stage’. The solar (powered) stage was hosted by Des Camarillo from Songsmith Solar Soundsystem, and their challenge was to offer fun from the sun in all conditions, and given the weather conditions of the day, this could have proved to be a big challenge! Sharing the solar marquee were urban art experts, Sketchcity.

Sketchcity are a group of urban artists who see graffiti as an art form, not vandalism, and they have inspired previous festival goers with their workshops, where hundreds of people have taken part.

The workshop they provided this year was slightly more serious to recent years because they have been asked to do the decorating for the new Yard youth and community centre and they wanted to showcase some of their ideas. They invited people to contribute their own work, which would then be displayed inside the centre when it is finished.

Around the site, there was a range of entertainment and stalls for people to look at. Two particular hits were the big galleon style bouncy castle and Greater Manchester Police demonstrated how the sirens on a Police Car work.