Forgotten Festivals
Forgotten Festivals was a county-wide project throughout 2012 that celebrated specific communities and their history. The programme of events brought together existing traditional celebrations such as Swan Upping and Mummers plays with eight new celebrations.
Giants Picnic
Eight schools across Surrey learned how to create giant puppets. Half the schools took characters from local stories and had storytelling workshops to bring these stories to life. The other half created sporting characters. The schools and puppets came together on Box Hill for a picnic with music, games and parade.
Lingfield Community Play
Theatre Exchange created a new piece of theatre for Lingfield. The production took place in venues throughout the village - the church, pub and school. The story followed a family as they celebrated festivities with the community, drawing on old traditions and adapting to new.
Runway
Visual Artist Mary Branson and Choreographer Rosie Heafford delivered workshops in local schools, day centres, Royal Holloway University and with local families. Residents produced porcelain lanterns marked with symbols on the theme celebrating flight and freedom. The final event saw a moving intergenerational dance piece amongs hundreds of illuminated lanterns at the site of the Magna Carta memorial.
Elmbridge Mummers Play
An original Thames Ditton Mummers Play was unearthed by The Elmbridge Museum and revived by young performers who offered a contemporary twist on this traditional style of theatre across Elmbridge.
Woking Peace Garden
Woking engaged the community in the local history of the Muslim Burial Ground on Horsell Common through creative workshops and activities. This was the original resting place for 24 Muslim soldiers who died during WW1 and WW2.
Staines-Upon-Thames Day
The rich heritage of Staines and Spelthorne was celebrated in a fun journey in Memorial Gardens beside the River Thames looking at different prominent periods in Staines’ history such as the Bronze Age, Roman, Saxon and Tudor with walks, dancing and entertainment for all the family.
River of Life
Guildford celebrated the Summer Solstice with music and performance. Giant puppet Mother Eartha narrated traditional customs & poetry whilst people made their wishes and floated their flower garlands upon the river at Millmead.
Waverley Revivals
A revival of old celebrations took place including Lammas Day – a breadmaking festival in Godalming, Well Dressing in Haslemere, May Day parade at Cranleigh and a Hop Festival in Farnham.
For more information, contact sa.visual@surreycc.gov.uk