BATH CARNIVAL 2020 UPDATE - Summer Event Cancelled

The Bath Carnival 2020 event has been cancelled due to COVID-19. The free Carnival parade and music festival was due to take place on Saturday 11 July.

Whilst it is not possible to deliver the annual city-wide party, the organsiers are continuing to work with local organisations to bring a flavor of Carnival to smaller community events which may still take place later in the year, if safe to do so.

However, the project’s community outreach programme has been adapted in response to the lockdown situation, with details below.

FREE ACTIVITIES FOR SELF-ISOLATION

• A series of free online activities supported by Bath Carnival is keeping people active and connected with friends and family during lockdown.
• The virtual project is an adaptation of the community workshops which were scheduled to take place in schools, with community groups and charities throughout the summer.
• A mix of artists, musicians and community groups have helped design and implement the activities which include music, dance, costume making and physical education.
• Bath Carnival Director, Stu Matson, said: “The pandemic has obviously had a huge impact on the community, but it has been inspiring to see so many local individuals and community groups respond with such innovative ideas and creative flair.
• We were quick to redesign the Bath Carnival 2020 project as we wanted to keep people connected during isolation. Thankfully we’re now able to support some incredible local groups with developing their own inspiring projects.”
• The programme of activities is suitable for all ages and will continue running throughout May, June and July, with new ideas being developed. 

SOME HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR

One area of the project proving particularly popular with younger audiences is the the Carnival Adventures videos. New episodes are being released every week and are designed to keep children active while at home. In each episode Jason Prentice from children’s event company SuperPirates guides viewers through a series of madcap adventures, which require a mix of stamina and physical strength to join in with.

On the music side of things local Samba group Jamma de Samba are keeping spirits high by encouraging people to use their imagination by turning everyday household objects into percussive instruments.

In the first showcase video over 50 children, adults and families recorded themselves playing along to Jamma’s Samba backing track. The public’s videos were then mixed together, mastered and turned into the first virtual community Samba jam. The next in the series will be a Hip-Hop track with special guests soon to be confirmed.

Another exciting musical collaboration is with the Bath based Music Workshop. Their dedicated team are helping Bath Carnival create entire virtual bands – including drummers, guitarist, bassists and singers! Remarkably, no-one will need to leave their home to take part, instructions on how to join the project can be found here.

Those looking to let off some steam can do so every Friday with Bath Carnival and Midnight Ritual, who are hosting weekly ‘virtual raves’ every Friday via the online platform Zoom. Live DJs perform from 09:30pm through to the early hours with Bath Carnival Dance Instructor Angeles Montero leading dance choreographies for viewers to join in with.

All activities are free to access and there’s much more to come, including children’s and adult dance classes, headdress making workshops and live tutorials via Instagram Live.