Barnaby Festival wants your views

Image Liz West at Christ Church, by Travelling Simon

The team at Barnaby Festival is looking to residents and community groups in Macclesfield to share their views on how they want Barnaby to take shape.

The festival will be carrying out a consultation this spring to help inform future events.

Barnaby Festival was established in 2010 and has, in recent years been held as a biannual event across venues in the town centre. It is a celebration of arts and culture and the unique heritage of Macclesfield. 

The festival won’t be running this year and the Board wants to hear from people about what they would like the future of Barnaby to look like. It is also seeking to recruit new trustees.

Beck Conway from Barnaby Festival, said: “In order to ensure that Barnaby remains vibrant, relevant and sustainable we want to hear from people about what they want to see and take part in.

“Barnaby is created by the people of Macclesfield for the people of Macclesfield and beyond and we want to return bolder and brighter with future events. The consultation is an opportunity for people to have their say about what kind of events they like to take part in and what they want to see in Macclesfield.”

“We’re also at a point where we’d like to welcome more trustees. If you have experience in arts and culture, community engagement or other areas of expertise then we’d really like to hear from you.”

Barnaby works with local residents and community groups to deliver popular events such as the parade, with its colourful floats that wind around the town centre alongside live music, artistic commissions, exhibitions and family activities.

Barnaby has been impacted by the pandemic in recent years and in 2020 a reduced programme was hosted online. Last year saw a mixture of in-person and online events with Barnaby Bright, including visual artist Liz West’s commission in Christ Church and a local bands competition in partnership with local venue Mash Guru and music charity Brighter Sound.

Beck added: “We also need the people of Macclesfield to help deliver Barnaby. We need to build up our volunteers, as they are always integral to the festival’s success. We understand that volunteering has been challenging during the pandemic, but we really hope we can welcome people again.”

Barnaby Festival is a charity and is governed by a board of trustees with a small team who are recruited for each festival. A lot of the delivery is powered by volunteers.

The consultation will run in the spring and summer. An online questionnaire will be hosted on Barnaby’s website and sent out to subscribers. Alongside this, printed versions will be available at locations in the town. For updates please check the Barnaby website and follow them on social media.

To get in touch about volunteering: volunteer@barnabyfestival.org.uk

If you are interested in becoming a trustee contact chair@barnabyfestival.org.uk