Celebrations and Lovely Times

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This week the blog is very late…very late indeed…Jack got his guest blog to me in plenty of time so the fault is entirely my own…sorry team

The problem has been that there has been too much celebrating going on…far too much having a lovely time…in fact having a lovely time was pretty much all I did over the weekend and so despite my good intentions to try and fit blog writing into all this celebrating and having a lovely time I failed entirely…

The first celebration and having a lovely time was the culmination of Flock to Ossett on Saturday.  It was an absolute triumph. To see such vivid colour, such a lot of people with so many smiles, such loveliness, such vibrancy bringing to life the centre of the town was magic.  I was so pleased with Black Company’s performance and so glad we could be part of something that showed precisely how participation with the arts can revitalise both people and places…in fact entire communities.  The whole day was a celebration of both the town itself and the people that live in it.  It was a celebration of the months of hard work that have gone into making it happen and all the hours of engagement in art that has entailed.  For me it was also a celebration of new partnerships and relationships that have been formed during that time and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who reflected on that as the day progressed.  Flock to Ossett has introduced me to inspiring people, people who set their hearts and minds on a vision and who make it happen…such impressive stuff!  Finally, as I said more than once in the last rehearsals for our performance of Helen Rhodes’ myth, there was something very special to celebrate about Yorkshire voices performing in a Yorkshire town telling a story written by a Yorkshire writer.

The other celebration was a much more personal one and so I’m going to try not to get to self indulgent…suffice to say that spending the afternoon with so many of you was the perfect way to end one year and begin another.  I had a lovely time and that’s all because of the people who came, the people who performed, the people who watched…all of you.  Thank you for giving me a day full of magical memories that I will treasure always…

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