Events

Loughborough Bell Festival

Loughborough Bell Festival

Date: Sun, 10th Sep 2023 13:15 - 17:30

Venue: Queen's Park, Loughborough

Come join us as the bells ring out in our first-ever festival to commemorate the bell as a unique symbol of Loughborough and its heritage.

See our 7-foot willow representation of the Great Paul bell - the largest bell ever cast in Britain - as it's blessed at All Saints Church. Watch it leave to a peal of church bells, pulled on a vintage trailer by a 140-year-old steam engine.

Bring a bell of your own and join in the parade to Granby Street, where we will meet the steam engine and follow the bell into Queen's Park to be welcomed by the Mayor of Charnwood and music from our hundred-year-old Carillon Tower.

Relax with a picnic and listen to brass band music and singing, have a go at hand bells and art activities, watch local Morris sides dance and find out about the history of John Taylor & Co, Loughborough's world-famous bell foundry - all in the glorious surroundings of the park donated to the town by local benefactors to mark Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.

Bell blessing at All Saints Parish Church at 1.30 pm

Parade begins at 2 pm
Activities in the park from 2.15 pm onwards.

We need volunteers to help us stage this event, including supporting the parade for just 30 minutes (max) as it makes its way through the town centre. Interested? Ring/text 0784 268 1393 or email info@charnwoodarts.com.

This is a FREE event staged during the national Heritage Open Day intiaitive. For further details and information on other local HOD activities see here.

Latest Events

''The world in your book does not have to be realistic - just plausible': Creative Writing Workshop with Jasper Fforde

''The world in your book does not have to be realistic - just plausible': Creative Writing Workshop with Jasper Fforde

Thu, 30th May 2024 15:00 - 16:00

Join bestselling author Jasper Fforde for a creative writing workshop on absurdist fiction.

Jasper Fforde is the author of 17 books. His work blends a range of genres, including fantasy, crime and sci-fi. He is most well-known for his Thursday Next series, beginning with his debut novel, The Eyre Affair, in 2001.

His most recent novel, Red Side Story, was published in February 2024 and is the second book in his Shades of Grey series. Fforde's bestselling series explores a world whose hierarchies are based on the colour spectrum.

The workshop takes place in Matthew Arnold 105.

Accessibility information is available here: https://www.accessable.co.uk/loughborough-university/east-park/access-guides/mar-1-05

'Alien Invasion': An online video game by Ama Dogbe

'Alien Invasion': An online video game by Ama Dogbe

Fri, 3rd Nov 2023 - Sat, 27th Jan 2024

About Ama Dogbe
Ama Dogbe is a British-Ghanaian artist who builds video games, digital animations and audio-visual installations exploring autobiographical and utopian themes. Her recent work uses interactive virtual world-building as a tool to examine family, identity and the internet. She has created digital forests, sky mazes, and gleaming platforms that audiences can explore online. Her processes often use self-taught and collaborative techniques to produce experimental and unconventional outcomes. Ama has been commissioned by Spike Island, Bristol (2023) and tiata fahodzi, Watford (2022). She has also exhibited with Fermynwoods Contemporary Art (2022), East Bristol Contemporary (2022) and Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester (2021).


About 'Alien Invasion'
Ama Dogbe presents a new version of Alien Invasion, an interactive web-based game. In Alien Invasion, figures descend upon a garden-like world, and players follow paths to uncover talismans, relics and icons. The game has been created in part through photogrammetry, the process of creating 3D digital outcomes from photographs. Using physical and digital repetition, Ama has created a web of symbols that are both strange and familiar. The game is accompanied by a soundtrack of electronic, ambient and contemporary hip-hop by musician Louis Jack. The video game will be available to play via the Modern Painters, New Decorators website. The project is funded by Arts Council England.


About Modern Painters, New Decorators
Modern Painters, New Decorators is an artist-led organisation running a gallery, shop and studios from a shopping centre in Loughborough, East Midlands, UK. We believe that artists can positively impact where we live and why we live there. We make visual art projects, community workshops and creative networks