Get on board for Rochdale Canal Festival

Rochdale Canal Festival

A two week festival which aims to promote Rochdale Canal will begin tomorrow, Saturday 21 July. The event will hope to encourage Rochdale people to use ‘one of the borough’s greatest heritage assets’ more frequently, especially throughout the summer months.

The festival will begin with an action packed funday by the canal at Ealees, Littleborough. Attendees will be offered the chance to participate in many of the activities which will be ongoing throughout the day, such as kayaking and angling lessons, themed guided walks and bike adventures. Other planned activities include a bouncy castle, boat rides along the canal, donkey rides, face painting and performances from the Littleborough Public Brass Band and Rochdale Morris dancers. All activities will be free of charge.

The mayor and mayoress of Rochdale will be attending to open the festival and will be announcing the winners of the art competition ‘Past and Future,’ which has challenged youngsters to draw or paint the canal as they would imagine it 200 years ago or alternatively 200 years in the future. The winners will each receive a prize with £50 gift vouchers up for grabs and a pass for a day out at Strike Ten Bowling and Pizza Hut for four people. There are also prizes of £25 and £10 pound gift vouchers for the second and third place winners, as well as the day out.

Event organisers are hoping that the funday will spark two fantastic weeks of exciting leisure opportunities for the residents of Rochdale and surrounding areas.

Frances Fielding of the Special Projects Team at Rochdale Council's Partnership amp; Regeneration Service said: "We hope after the Festival, people will continue to use and respect the canal and enjoy the use of this wonderful heritage asset."

The event at Ealees will run from 11am to 4pm.