Littleborough Arts Festival

Needlework workshop at Littleborough Arts Festival

Littleborough Arts Festival opened its doors last night and had a first day of workshops and art exhibitions today (Saturday 24 August).

The festival is held to promote the arts within the local community and to provide selling opportunities for local artists.

Held at Littleborough Coach House, this afternoon saw workshops in needlework and clay modeling.

Hilary Isherwood from the committee responsible for putting on the festival said:“For the workshops, we go for variety and try and do a bit of everything.”

“We try and look for things we haven’t done before and the people who do the workshops either do their skill as a hobby or have it as a business.”

The clay modeling workshop was run between 1pm and 3pm and gave people the chance to make gargoyles and monsters.

Amy Daniels who ran the workshop said: “I ran a workshop last year and found it successful so decided to come back but I would have come back no matter what. Its nice to do something for the community.”

Amy was introduced to the festival through a friend of a friend and Hilary added: “We like to get whomever we can involved.”

A needlework workshop was also held for adults.

Suzie Vallis who ran the workshop has a business in needlework. She said: “This is my third year at the
festival and it is great.”

“We get a variety of people attending the workshops and needlework is something that really seems to be in at the minute. We’ve got people making glasses cases and passport covers today.”

This year is the twelfth year for the festival, which is open to artists of all levels.

Richard Cafiero, chairman of the committee said: “The standard is getting stronger each year and comes from a range of people.

"I think its good for artists to see others work on display and see what other artists do.”

Each artist displays three pieces of framed artwork and 10 pieces of unframed artwork available for the public to buy.

Richard added: “We have had a really good first day and to see all this come together after the work the committee does is great.”

Littleborough Arts Festival will continue throughout the week and will hold a variety of workshops for adults and children. There will also be a pop and rock concert on Thursday 29 August starring Lauren Waterworth, The Watch and Little Jazz Funk Orchestra. Tickets are £5 each and the concert will take place at St Barnabas Church, Littleborough.